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The aviation industry generates the most carbon fiber waste, and commercial suppliers of recycled carbon fiber typically look to the aviation industry as a source of recycled material
.
The excess material, usually uncured thermoset composite prepreg, is collected and the resin is removed using heat (pyrolysis) or chemical solvents (dissolution) to obtain fibers, which are then ground, chopped or otherwise Granulation
.
As the industry increasingly uses thermoplastic composites, a range of new opportunities for recycling has opened up
.
Because thermoplastic polymers can be remelted and shaped, the aerospace industry has more opportunities to reabsorb its own waste into secondary applications—both fibers and matrix resins can potentially be reused
.
The Thermoplastic Composites Application Center (TPAC) in Enschede, the Netherlands, has collaborated with the local Thermoplastics Research Center (TPRC) at the applied research level, and TPAC researcher Thomas de Bruijn points out that the industry's efforts are in-house recycling.
this material
.
"From a feasibility standpoint, it makes more sense to use an in-house approach to recycling thermoplastic composites,
" he said
.
According to Thomas de Bruijn, aircraft OEMs are more likely to recycle in-house rather than turn to commercial suppliers of recycled carbon fiber, primarily because of traceability
.
Otherwise, it becomes more difficult to match the polymer type to a given application
.
According to Johan Meuzelaar, an engineering pressure specialist at GKN Fokker in the Netherlands, find as many possible applications as possible in your own production environment
.
“If you look at the types of thermoplastic parts we make from virgin materials, many of them can use recycled materials
,” he said.
“We definitely use up a lot of the waste we generate
.
“We already have the facilities
.
” Guillaume Vincent, thermoplastic composites engineer at TPRC, adds that internal recycling fits within the normal process chain, and most of the equipment is already in place, making it the most economical route
.
TPC-Cycle recycling route (pictures from TPRC and TPAC)
De Bruijn, Vincent and Meuzelaar are involved in the TPC-Cycle project run by TPAC and TPRC
.
The project aims to reuse production waste from thermoplastic composite processing for aerospace and high-volume applications, with the goal of maintaining the high mechanical properties of thermoplastic composites at an affordable cost and reducing the overall impact on the environment
.
The TPC-Cycle process has short cycle times and is said to enable the production of complex shapes
.
Gyrocopter teach pendant access panel developed using TPC-Cycle process (images via TPRC, TPAC and GKN Fokker)
Several industry partners representing different parts of the value chain from materials, manufacturing, design to application, including GKN Fokker, Toray Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, CA, USA and Nijverdal, The Netherlands), Cato Composite Innovations, The Netherlands, Dutch Thermoplastic Components and Nido RecyclingTechniek from the Netherlands are involved in the TPC-Cycle project
.
According to de Bruijn, the TPC-Cycle project is looking at completing a cost analysis and a life cycle analysis to justify the process economically
.
Additionally, projects such as Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking (funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme) are encouraging developers to focus on closed-loop utilization of aviation waste
.
OEMs are looking for potential opportunities "to use recycled factory scrap for interior components, access panels, small components and even airframe clips and system mounts
.
"
Dr.
Bas Veldman, GKN Fokker's project manager for the development of the lower half of the thermoplastic multifunctional fuselage demonstrator, is fostering this concept by launching a call for proposals for fuselage clips and brackets under the Clean Sky 2 project
.
An important factor in developing the demonstrator was reducing its environmental impact by using scrap from the factory for products such as frame clips and brackets
.
The demonstrator will also replace fasteners with welding to save material, energy and cost, while also helping to reduce weight
.
According to Meuzelaar, GKN Fokker is researching how recycling technology can be part of the company's future airframe concepts
.
He said the concept would likely use a lot of thermoplastic composites, which in turn would generate a lot of scrap that could be recycled for brackets, fittings and non-structural parts
.
"The reason for considering thermoplastic airframes is cost, which we think is an economical method of production, including recycling,
" he said
.
Meuzelaar said the high-level goal is to make more affordable and sustainable products in aviation
.
While the move toward mass production with thermoplastics comes with scrap, he is confident that scrap can be used commercially, saying that low-shear hybrid, moldable thermoplastic composites reinforced with recycled carbon fibers provide the potential for adoption.
Design freedom that traditional laminates of continuous fibers do not offer
.
"You also have a lot of options for making very interesting non-structural parts like aerospace panels, small fairings or system mounts, which are often over-engineered in terms of materials, alloys and production systems used," he explained.
of
.
"
He is convinced that the opportunity lies primarily in nonstructural components of medium size and complexity, which remain a significant part of the overall cost of larger components
.
"While we won't be making wings from recycled thermoplastics in the near future, inside the wing we can make some parts
at low cost," Meuzelaar said
.
All of this suggests that predicting the impact of thermoplastic composites on the recycling industry is a long way off
.
“Based on new production methods, such as tape lay-up or custom blanks, the percentage of scrap may be lower, which may reduce scrap compared to the typical nesting and stamping processes we see today,
” says de Bruijn , "But overall I think there will be more thermoplastic waste in the future
.
"
While interest in in-house recycling is on the rise, there will always be some scrap that is not available and manufacturers will be unwilling or unable to do in-house recycling
.
In this case, these materials can be recovered by the material supplier
.
Time will tell what the increased use of thermoplastic composites means for the supply chain
.
