NCC seeks to supercharge carbon fibre recycling

Continuous carbon fibre has a higher material performance than the chopped carbon fibre that is already recovered today, but which has limited industrial uses. Earlier this year, the NCC – working alongside B&M Longworth and Cygnet Texkimp – successfully trialled a process that uses superheated steam to separate out ‘continuous lengths’ of carbon fibre which can serve some of the same applications as virgin fibre. Scaling up this process over the next three years could be a crucial step to meet the growing demand for carbon fibre, which is expected to exceed supply by 2025.

“Famously, the UK leads the world in the industrialisation of carbon fibre manufacturing but has struggled to develop the sector,” said Enrique Garcia, chief technology officer at the National Composites Centre. “We exported much of our expertise – and even our manufacturing infrastructure – to Japan, which was subsequently able to capitalise on a huge growth in US defence spending in the 1980s and, later, a boom in consumer demand for high-end carbon fibre products. 

“We now have a unique opportunity to drive forward a new market by industrialising the processes required to recycle carbon fibre – it is imperative that we push hard now to establish this capability in the UK.”

According to the NCC, the plan is to establish an ‘ABC’ grading system of reclaimed carbon fibre that will support a wider range of applications for second-life material. If successful, it’s estimated that by 2026, the new system could reduce the volume of continuous carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) material sent to landfill in the UK by 50 per cent.

Through trials, the NCC has also calculated that using reclaimed carbon fibre reduces material manufacturing emissions from around 29.5kg CO₂e per kg to 5kg CO₂e. Not only will developing a stream for second-life carbon fibre help reduce embedded emissions, it could also provide a new potential revenue stream for businesses as the demand for the material increases and supply is squeezed. It’s expected that the highest quality virgin fibre will be allocated to sectors like aerospace and automotive, while sectors such as sporting goods – where carbon fibre is used in running shoes, fishing rods and bike frames – may look to source recycled material.  

The first step of the NCC-led programme will be to qualify material performance, expected to be completed by November 2022. Following that, a team will develop a series of commercial demonstrators to showcase the properties of the three grades of reclaimed fibre the programme will produce.

“We’re looking to rapidly scale up this collaboration and seek partners who would be interested in accelerating product demonstrators using reclaimed continuous fibre in order to rapidly reduce their manufacturing carbon footprint,” said Garcia.

Do you see a viable second-life market for carbon fibre emerging in the coming years? Let us know in the comments section below