Recycling of Composite Materials
To decrease environmental consequences and fulfill demand, recycling fiber-reinforced advanced composite manufacturer will play a significant role in the future, particularly for wind energy, aerospace, automotive, construction, and marine industries.
Fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials are becoming more used in a variety of sectors. This widespread usage has resulted in a massive rise in trash generation, which must be handled without severe environmental difficulties. Recycling fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials in line with circular economy concepts might be one solution to these issues. As a result, this article aims to conduct an empirical analysis of the available scientific literature on recycling systems for fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials.
The primary purpose is to give a complete and holistic overview of the issue, research gaps, and future directions using a rigorous and transparent manner. More than 150 papers were chosen using a systematic methodology and then analyzed using bibliometric analysis. The findings reveal that this area has gained traction recently, with researchers conducting experimental experiments on chemical and thermal recycling strategies for recovering carbon fibers. Finally, this article offers an in-depth research agenda based on identified research gaps and an improved management understanding of this study area.
Recycling Methods
Because of the ongoing use of limited resources and the necessity to handle waste management, there has been increasing concern for the environment, resulting in enhanced material recycling.
Because polymers are often more challenging to recycle and the recycling process is also costly, landfilling has proved a very cost-effective means of disposing garbage based on polymer composites in many circumstances. Carbon fiber manufacturer often generate up to 40% scrap material, which might end up in landfills or garbage incineration.
Policies encouraging recycling have been implemented in addition to using economic mechanisms such as levies to conserve the environment.
What can we do to decrease composite waste?
Waste management has grown in significance in the European Union. To minimize it, trash avoidance should begin at the manufacturing stage by reusing a product, recycled material, waste incineration, and landfill reduction. In contrast to quick-melting thermoplastics, thermoset composites have a cross-linked structure and cannot be created. Several thermoset polymers, including polyurethane, may be readily converted back to their original monomer.
Commercially available thermosetting resins, on the other hand, such as polyester and epoxy resin, are challenging to depolymerize back into their starting monomers. At this time, it may be expected that complete fiber recovery, often known as a direct structural recycling technique, would assist the composite manufacturer. Because of the minimal use of natural resources, energy, and labor, as well as the near-virgin fiber quality, recycled fibers from this technology have an added market value. In terms of the breakdown of recycling methods used in research and industry, solvolysis (24%), pyrolysis (31%), and mechanical grinding (18%) have the most acceptability. 20% are referred to as “other” technologies. Several approaches have been tested and validated. These include mechanical, thermal, and chemical-based recycling technologies, with the method chosen depending on the kind of material to be recycled and the application in which it is reused.
What are the challenges of composite recycling?
Furthermore, determining a standard recycling procedure among the many approaches is problematic. For thermoset composites, many recycling techniques have been documented and encouraged. So far, three types of categorization procedures have been reported: mechanical, chemical, and thermal recycling. Mechanical recycling is shredding garbage into recyclates using automated shredding machines. Thermal recycling uses thermal methods to break down waste material for material and energy, while chemical recycling uses reactive media to dissolve the matrix from the fibers.
TRL (Technological Readiness Level) is a framework used in various sectors to measure technology maturity from ideation (basic ideas) through commercialization. Incineration and landfilling are classified as TRL 9, indicating that they are presently operational systems. The average values for pyrolysis for carbon fibers and mechanical milling for glass fiber applications were 8.3 and 8.2, respectively, with a median of 8, putting them at TRL 8.
The conventional pyrolysis of recycled carbon fiber technology is commercially accessible on an industrial scale. Pyrolysis for glass fibers had a mean of 6.25, while mechanical grinding for carbon fibers had a mean of 6.3, with a median of 7. The mean values for fluidized bed pyrolysis and solvolysis were 4.2 and 2.24, respectively. The average value for microwave heating was 3.2.
Recycling’s Impact on Composite Manufacturer, Regeneration, and Future Applications
Lightweight structures allow for lower fuel usage and related air and vehicle traffic emissions. It has been shown that a 10% decrease in a vehicle’s structural weight may result in a 6-8% reduction in fuel consumption.
Recyclability is especially significant for the automobile sector, which is subject to the ELV Directive (2000/53/EC), which requires at least 95% of a new vehicle’s average weight at the end of its life (EoL) to be recycled by January 2015. As a result, material recycling is projected to get increased attention for research initiatives and government funding as a potential strategy for improving the circular economy and sustainability. Most carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) products are long-lasting and are still in the early stages of their product life cycle.
Why should we apply design standards for composite recycling?
The fiber reinforcement and matrix of advanced composite manufacturer influence the optimal recycling process. If particular items become established on the market, it will be critical to understand how manufacturing leftovers may be recycled and what occurs after the product’s life cycle. Furthermore, standardized design standards and effective end-to-end predictive modeling methodologies are absent for composites and components. The recycling regulations that must be incorporated throughout the design process are currently being formalized.
