FEATURE

0034-3617/10 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved 33 REINFORCEDplastics MARCH/APRIL 2010
Launching the carbon
bre recycling industry
Recycling carbon fibres from aerospace composite scrap has
environmental and business benefits. The shift from pilot scale to
industrial operations is progressing, as Vicki P. McConnell learns
from entrepreneurs in this enterprise.
W
ith an estimated 3000 tonnes
(6.6 million lbs) of carbon
fibre composite (CFRP) scrap
(so-called black junk) being generated
annually in the USA and Europe, some
6000 to 8000 commercial planes expected
to reach end-of-life dismantlement
by 2030, and the production of virgin
carbon fibre ( VCF) on the rise toward
100 000-plus tonnes (220 million lbs)
annually by 2018, somethings gotta give.
Where will all this black junk go?
Neither landll nor incineration disposal of
CFRP scrap is optimal, and environmental
regulations may eventually lead to a ban
on both. Enter the paradigm of penultimate
asset management, the potential for wringing
revenues even beyond the aircraft boneyard
by recycling the high-grade carbon bre
components onboard. Companies large
and small seek to glean this gold through
enhanced eco-friendly or green processes.
However, development of a CFRP recycling
industry is in its infancy, and processes to
date are expensive and complicated mainly
because high-performance engineered
materials are, well, well engineered. To the
point that a source for this article deems them
downright intractable.
Intractable by design
Intractable by design, therefore signi-
cantly challenging to recycle, is Jan-Michael
Gosaus assessment of the technological task
of reclaiming carbon bres from epoxy-
predominant CFRP because the continuous
reinforcement is chemically well bonded to
the crosslinked matrix resin.
Gosau is Environmental and Energy
Programs Manager for research company,
Adherent Technologies Inc (ATI) based
in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA. The
company has worked on recycling proc-
esses since 1995, with $3 million (2 million)
in funding along the way from the US
Departments of Defense and Energy and
an alliance with Titan Technologies. Titan
is an Albuquerque developer of a pyrolysis
process for recycling automobile tyres.
In the mid-1990s, Gosau indicates, we ran
the gauntlet with pyrolysis, trying to hit
just the right temperature/oxygen content
sweet spot, and decided it was not optimal
for CFRP recycling as our primary process.
ATI has evolved a catalytic conversion
technology centered around its batch-based
carbon bre recyclate processing, combining
three dierent processes studied over the
past decade, each with specic advantages
and limitations.
Vacuum pyrolysis, a dry process operated
at around 500C (932F), recovers resins
as marketable liquids and can be easily
scaled up to multi-tonne capacity. At this
Microwave-based recycling of non-upgraded fibres (left) results in recyclate (right) that can be used in
SMC compounds for new product applications. (Picture courtesy of Firebird Advanced Materials.)
FEATURE
REINFORCEDplastics MARCH/APRIL 2010 34 www.reinforcedplastics.com
temperature, however, bre product may
retain oxidation residue or char.
The companys low-temperature liquid process
operates at 150C (302F), runs at less than
150 psi on standard equipment, and produces
a market-ready bre, but is not particularly
tolerant of scrap contaminants (such as metal,
wire, paint and sealants). The high tempera-
ture liquid option (around 300C/572F)
produces clean bres from most composites,
but requires customised equipment and
is currently not considered necessary for
commercial recyclate production. Phenol has
proven a good choice as initial heat transfer
uid for both wet processes; the breakdown
products of the resin can be recycled into
glue for the production of plywood.
ATI has demonstrated its low-temperature
wet process in combination with vacuum
pyrolysis for the removal of insoluble
contaminants in a pilot-scale reactor capable
of processing 23 kg (50 lbs) an hour.
Gosau adds that testing of its recycling
technology on CFRP scrap with multiple resin
chemistries indicates that the combination
of dry and wet processes is the best way to
maximise recyclate quality. Low temperature
wet chemical processing removes the bulk of
the resin and some contaminants, followed
by thermal post-treatment through vacuum
pyrolysis to eliminate remaining resin and
produce 99% bre purity.
This may not result in the most elegant
processing, Gosau concludes, but we can
handle the true mixed soup of CFRP waste
without the need for time-consuming and
expensive hand sorting, making it nancially
viable. Further, the combined approach elimi-
nates the need for any solvent use.
ATIs recycling technology used this
combined approach to recycle scrap from
test articles built within the Boeing 787
Dreamliner programme. The thick laminate
structure, which utilises a thermoplastic
toughener in an interlayer between the
carbon bre/epoxy layers, presented near
intractability in terms of recyclability. Applica-
tion of ATIs low temperature wet process
completely dissolved the epoxy but left the
toughener behind. Next, vacuum pyrolysis at
525C (977F) removed the toughener and
other contaminants.
Boeings support of ATIs small business eort
in developing recycling technology leaves no
doubt of the OEMs eco-responsible proactivity
(see box on page 37). The new B787 is 50%
composites by weight and predominantly
carbon bre laminate and carbon bre skins
over core in sandwich structure.
For any company involved in the develop-
ment of the CFRP recycling industry, there is a
performance perception problem to be dealt
with. This is the idea that recycled carbon
bres are of secondary or lesser than quality
than VCF. While recyclate properties vary,
leading R&D indicates that properties reduc-
tion of only 3-5% compared to VCF has been
exhibited in reclaimed chopped and milled
bres used to make thermoplastic compounds
such as bulk moulding compound (BMC).
Even when producing recyclate with perform-
ance properties comparable to VCF, evolving
the business of CFRP recycling involves some
formidable requirements. Gosau lists those as
consistent scrap availability, appropriate size
reduction technologies for the CFRP waste,
established process parameters, the infrastruc-
ture for secondary operations such as material
collection at a manufacturers site, and
eventually, creation of standardised recyclate
product properties. Currently, ATIs recycling
technology solutions await licensees or
possible turnkey operations partners, though
Gosau veries them as robust and de-
nitely commercially viable for proceeding to
One inch tow recycled from CFRP scrap exhibits nearly identical properties/morphology to virgin carbon fibre.
(Picture courtesy of Firebird Advanced Materials.)
Pie chart compiled from Recycomp Project estimates for Europe shows diverse breakout of manufacturing
wastes. (Source: Firebird Advanced Materials.)
Woven
prepreg
waste
62%
UD
prepreg
waste
11%
Composite
mfg. part
waste
4%
Clean bre
waste
8%
Fabric
selvedge
waste
15%
FEATURE
www.reinforcedplastics.com 35 REINFORCEDplastics MARCH/APRIL 2010
next-level production at 1000 tonnes/annum.
Further, at the suggested price of US$5/lb for
recyclate, the company believes a reasonable
prot can be made.
Zapping CFRP with microwaves
Microwave pyrolysis is another form of CFRP
recycling under development by companies
and universities in the USA, UK and Germany
(see box). Generally, microwave energy
absorbed by the conductive properties of
carbon bre heat the matrix resin internally
rather than externally. This can result in more
rapid resin decomposition and recovery of
bres without char formation, shorter overall
processing time, and smaller scale equip-
ment than is required for other pyrolysis
methods. Over the past three years, research
company Firebird Advanced Materials Inc in
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, has built a small
pilot-scale installation to test its microwave
recycling process, and this year, has begun
implementation of commercialisation plans.
Funded primarily by US Air Force/National
Science Foundation Small Business grants
in the order of $1 million (738 000) (and
collaborating with North Carolina State Univer-
sity), Firebird has demonstrated the worlds
rst continuous microwave CFRP recycling
process with its equipment, reports Thomas
Hunter, company president. He estimates that
about 50% of CFRP manufacturing waste
comes from woven prepreg generated during
pattern cutting. This fabric waste can arrive at
a recycler in forms ranging from a fresh, tacky
entangled material to a hard, compressed bale
of overaged and cured scrap.
To convert this extreme range of feedstock
into a commercial product, Hunter and busi-
ness partner Chuck Segal believe it is crucial
to develop cooperative relationships between
waste generator and waste recycler. The best
setup to foster this, Hunter suggests, will
come in a network of smaller-scale facilities
near a sucient feedstock supply.
You cant just let a generator ll a waste
bin with scrap and expect that it will be
economical to recycle, he says. Your relation-
ship with feedstock generators is essential in
providing information about the feedstock in
terms of the total material chemistry and bre
content, maybe even access to raw material
certications that will allow a higher market
price for the recycled bre.
Hunter points out that the quality of CRFP
waste the aects labour costs dramatically,
especially for hand sorting.
Assuming $10/hour labour for hand sorting
10 kg per hour of prepreg scrap with
release lm, for example, one could end up
spending $2/kg for this function alone, which
is a good chunk of change when recyclate
is priced at only $5/lb, or perhaps even at
$20/kg for high quality recyclate.
He touts the eorts of the Aircraft Fleet
Recycling Association (AFRA) in helping foster
scrap generator/CFRP recycler cooperation
toward the growth of the recycling industry.
First commercial CFRP recyclate line
Speaking of world rsts, the rst continuous
pyrolysis recycling line producing commercial
carbon bre recyclate is in operation by Recy-
cled Carbon Fibre Ltd (RCF) of West Midlands,
UK. The company morphed out of technology
developed by research company Milled
Carbon Ltd, and began commercial operations
in October 2008. Steve Line, CEO, explains that
the two companies are entirely separate enti-
ties now, but characterises the nature of their
connection as brilliant concepts require equal
brilliance to get to commercial operations.
The demonstration project originally launched
by Milled Carbon to prove its process research
was about a fourth the size of the current
60 000 ft
2
RCF facility, with current capacity
for recycling CFRP scrap at 1200 tonnes
(2.6 million lbs) of recyclate per year. The
pyrolytic furnace reclaims bres at 500-900C
This model for cooperative exchange between waste generator and recycler offers environmental and revenue benefits for both, including low scrap disposal costs,
long term supply contracts, and high-quality scrap feedstock. (Source: Firebird Advanced Materials.)
Composite components providing the feedstock
for CFRP recyclate include F/A-18 horizontal
stabiliser parts and C-17 wing trailing edge
panel and stabiliser leading edge section.
(Pictures courtesy of Adherent Technologies Inc.)
RecycIed
CFRP product
FEATURE
REINFORCEDplastics MARCH/APRIL 2010 36 www.reinforcedplastics.com
(932-1652F) and is 30 m (100 ft) in length
and 9 m (8 ft) wide. Line says incoming scrap
must be assessed and separated if metals are
present in the CFRP because not all waste is
lovingly cared for. The UK plant has received
a highest-level environmental permit for
its operations, which features an extensive
abatement system to clean the fumes
created by resin decomposition.
RCFs carbon bre recyclate is clean, with no
char, and retains 90% or higher properties
compared to VCF, Line reports.
In some cases, surface properties of the
recyclate are actually enhanced over VCF.
Product forms include chopped, milled and
pelletised bres. In addition to applications
for CFRP recyclate previously mentioned here,
Line lists antistatic ooring, industrial paints,
cement and road surfacing, EMI shielding,
industrial coatings, otation devices, wooden
or metal frames, high temperature insulation,
rubber reinforcement and tooling moulds.
Lines enthusiasm for RCFs recycling
technology and facility isnt stied by the
enormity of the challenge of nding volume
markets for the recyclate.
As we see it, there are two distinct end
uses for CFRP recyclate: in products where it
replaces VCF and in products using recyclate
as a completely new and green material, he
says. Considering that the market price and
availability of VCF goes up and down like
a ddlers elbow, and due to the inuence
of activity in the aerospace sector, we are
looking to oer customers a xed price and
consistent quality and supply. Our hope is
that pricing for recyclate can be a third to a
half as much as VCF, which we believe is a
compelling proposition.
He is also cognisant of the very real risks
involved in a new industry with uncertain
supply volume of CFRP. Should feedstock
scrap rates suddenly drop, recyclers lose the
core of their businesses. In Lines experience,
however, there are many large corporations
who walk the talk of eco wisdom and want
to avoid dumping or burning composite
waste. He believes they should be rewarded
for this consciousness and action: Why not
include them in carbon trading schemes
based on the amount of waste they supply?
RCF has announced plans to open a second
recycling plant in the USA later this year, or
in 2011.
Technology viability
Understandably, detail about specic process
parameters and equipment design, recyclate
properties and end-use customers, pricing
and bre lengths, and especially volumes of
recyclate tested and sold remain in stealth
mode to protect competitive advantage. This
is clearly the case with YF International BV
(YFI) of Duiven, The Netherlands, and partner
company Apply Carbon, Languidic, France. The
companies YFI collecting the CFRP waste
and Apply Carbon processing it claim to
have been selling multiple grades of commer-
cial CFRP recyclate since 1998.
Klaas Hauwert, YFIs Managing Director,
wont get into specics about the pyrolysis-
based process or the volume level being
sold but does identify the niche markets
for the companys hundreds of tonnes/year
of carbon bre recyclate produced: lled
thermoplastic compounds for BMC and
thermoset compounds for sheet moulding
compound (SMC). The company also recy-
cles aramid, glass, nylon and polyester bres.
Hauwert notes that the lesser than VCF
properties perception of recyclate has
been readily dissuaded within his customer
base simply by using our products and
achieving the performance needed. Feed-
stock for the companys CFRP recycling
comes from composite components as
well as fabric waste, selvedges, lament
waste, rest spools and bobbins (or skin-
ners), though Hauwert notes that we still
nd companies who throw away their
precious carbon bre scrap. This is a great
pity since we need the carbon bre and
the waste generator could benet by
reducing disposal costs.
With OEMs generating CFRP waste even
as they build new and better aircraft and
recyclers opening industrial capacity plants
to handle the waste, the stage is set for
achieving penultimate asset management
by recycling composites even beyond an
aircrafts end-of-life dismantlement. How
much additional revenue is something of a
best guess but Firebirds Hunter gives it a go.
We have a good idea what VCF production
and growth rate will be, and historically, we
know the percentage of CFRP scrap gener-
ated from end-of-life aircraft in the 1970s
and 1980s, as well as the current number
of end-of-life aircraft. We know that CFRP
parts made today will be scrapped perhaps
30 years from now. What isnt publicly
known is the volume of manufacturing
scrap generated today by carbon bre
and CFRP producers. If we assume about
20% of total carbon bre made in the US,
that translates to about 2000 tonnes (4.4
million lbs) of scrap a year. If recyclate has a
marketable price of $5/lb, this translates to
$20 million (14.7 million) worth of material
that could be rescued from landlls and
turned into reclaimed bre, with a poten-
tial value of $40 million (29.5 million) by
2016 (assuming continued VCF production
growth rate at 15% annually worldwide).
SEM images show purity status of carbon fibre from F-18/A CFRP parts after 300C low-temperature
pretreatment (left) and of reclaimed AS4 fibres after high temperature process. (Pictures courtesy of
Adherent Technologies Inc.)
FEATURE
www.reinforcedplastics.com 37 REINFORCEDplastics MARCH/APRIL 2010
Aircraft OEMs play a critical role in making
CFRP recycling viable, as do government
agencies, industry organisations, and universi-
ties in enhancing R&D and project cost
sharing. Leading ongoing recycling technology
and demonstration programs underway inter-
nationally are briey described below.
Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association/AFRA
(Washington, DC, USA)
Founded in 2006, AFRA (www.afraassociation.
org) now has 41 members within the aircraft
industry, all committed to applying their
100 years of combined aircraft recycling exper-
tise to aircraft scrapping with best technical
standards. The organisation has developed both
printed Best Management Practices guides
and an accreditation path for more eective,
safe and green aircraft dismantlement, parts
recovery, and materials recycling. AFRA member
companies in 10 dierent countries currently
scrap an estimated 30% of the worlds end-of-
life eet aircraft.
The Boeing Co (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
A founding member of AFRA, original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) Boeing (www.boeing.com)
aims to boost the amount of recycled aircraft
material from 70% today to 90% by 2016. The
company began CFRP recycling from retired
F-18A military planes in 2004, carried this
through 777 composite components and even
used 787 pre-production scrap from a fuselage
test article to prototype a seat arm rest and
composite lay-up tool.
William Carberry, Project Manager of Airplane
and Composite Recycling for Boeing Commercial
Airplanes and the Deputy Director of AFRA,
adds that Boeing is also testing other parts
made from carbon bre recyclate. He notes
that the pending legislation in Europe to ban
landll disposal of composites will have signi-
cant impact in the next 3-5 years. Companies
in the airplane maintenance and end-of-
service business sectors (especially in Europe
and Japan) are going to need an alternative
disposal method, and we hope the carbon
bre recycling industry will be strong enough
by then to oer that option.
Among AFRA members that Boeing has
worked with directly in developing CFRP recy-
cling technologies are Milled Carbon/Recycled
Carbon Fibre, Adherent Technologies, and the
University of Nottingham.
Airbus Industries (Toulouse, France)
As part of the European Commissions LIFE
programme, OEM Airbus (www.airbus.com)
initiated the Process for Advanced Manage-
ment of End-of-Life Aircraft or PAMELA project
in 2005 with ve other partners. The groups
goal: enhance the eco-eciency of new aircraft
so that 85-95% of components and materials
could be recycled, reused or recovered, and to
establish new standards for green management
in the disposal of end-of-life aircraft.
Proof of such green processes in garnering
the gold of added revenue from the black junk
o a decommissioned A300-B4 aircraft occurred
in 2006 at Tarbes Airport in Southern France.
This included recycling potential for the 4% by
weight of composite materials on the A-300. In
2008, experience from this eort materialised
into TARMAC Aerosave (Tarbes Advanced Recy-
cling and Maintenance Aircraft Company, www.
tarmacaerosave.aero), a joint venture company
set up to take the eco-friendly PAMELA-LIFE
aircraft deconstruction and recycling technolo-
gies to the industrial level. The 97 000 ft
2
facility
includes a hangar that can house an A380, the
OEMs largest passenger aircraft to date, and
Airbus has recycled parts from an A380 static
test airframe through the facility.
In a separate consortia eort, Airbus is
working with CFK-Valley Stade Recycling GmbH
& Co KG (www.cfk-recycling.com) of Stade,
Germany to develop a 1000 tonne/year pyrolysis-
based recycling plant for the recovery of carbon
bres from both CFRP manufacturing scrap and
decommissioned Airbus aircraft. Dow Deutsch-
land Anlagengesellschaft mbH Stade is CFKs
engineering partner, and target launch for the
plant opening is this October. Tim Rademacker,
head of CFKs Sales and Marketing, states that
pilot plant recyclate grades exhibit ultraclean
surface properties (no resin or char) and have
been trialed in lled thermoplastic compounds.
University of Nottingham (UK)
The University of Nottingham (www.nottingham.
ac.uk) has a decade worth of R&D into carbon
bre recycling, particularly in the uidised bed
process and more recently, involving super-
critical uids such as propanol. Researchers have
created nonwoven mats with CFRP recyclate and
are developing a convergent ow slurry process
to enhance bre alignment and achieve higher
bre volumes. The university has also partici-
pated in the automotive-focused HIRECAR (High
Value Composite Materials from Recycled Carbon
Fibre) project (2005-2008) and is now involved,
with partners, in the follow-on AFRECAR
(Aordable Recycled Carbon Fibres) project with
technology and application research inclusive of
both automotive and aerospace industries.
Dr Steve Pickering, Associate Professor in
the Department of Mechanical, Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering, reports that current
research to develop alignment techniques
for carbon bre will allow it to be used in
higher value applications such as non-critical
aerospace components where the properties
of other materials cant compete. In the current
AFRECAR project, we hope to build demon-
strator components in 2011. He adds that the
universitys research in uidised bed recycling
has demonstrated the process as inherently
simple and ideally suited to end-of-life material
since it is tolerant of contamination.
CFRP recycling goes global
Prototype designs like this one for an arm rest of
the future to enhance the interior aircraft cabin
on Boeing aircraft also offered the opportunity
to test performance of carbon fibre recyclate.
(Picture courtesy of Boeing.)
Hunter makes the further point that the auto-
motive industry might be more embracing
of chopped and milled carbon bre if a
stable, low cost raw material supply could be
provided by recylate.
Two things seem certain: the compos-
ites industry will continue to optimise
technology at every step of utilisation; and
the key to the successful use of recyclate
carbon fibre will rely upon appropriate
use of the reclaimed material in prod-
ucts designed specifically for recyclate
properties. Or as YFIs Hauwert puts it,
by emphasising application, application,
application. Q