Recycled Carbon Fibre Recovery and Applications
topic
Recycled carbon fibre is recovered from composite waste and end-of-life aerospace components by pyrolysis at 450 to 700 degrees Celsius removing polymer matrix while retaining 85 to 95 percent of virgin fibre tensile strength and modulus, with recovered discontinuous fibres processed into nonwoven mats, pelletised compounds, or re-aligned discontinuous fibre preforms for injection moulding and compression moulding applications.
Role
Addresses the growing sustainability imperative and regulatory pressure to recover value from carbon fibre composite waste streams at significantly lower energy cost than virgin PAN fibre production, providing recycled carbon fibre at 20 to 40 percent of virgin fibre cost for semi-structural applications in automotive, sporting goods, and consumer electronics where some property reduction is acceptable.