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New research into carbon fibre recycling
INDUSTRY NEWS
INDUSTRY NEWS New research into carbon fibre recycling
T
he aircraft and motor industries could become much greener thanks to new research into car-
bon fibre recycling by engineers at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
Aircraft manufacturers are increasingly using carbon fibre instead of metal to build their planes because it is lighter and stronger – for example, half of the weight of Boeing’s new 787 passenger airliner is made up of carbon fibre composites – but at the moment there is no commercial use of ‘recycled’ carbon fibre in the industry. That could be about to change thanks to a research project led by Dr Steve Pickering of the Faculty of Engineering at Nottingham. The idea is to recycle and reuse the valuable carbon fibre, which up to now has only been disposed of in landfill. The AFRECAR (Affordable Recycled Carbon Fibres) project will develop low-cost, high-strength manufacturing materials based on the recycled fibre. These can be used as lightweight structural reinforcement in the aerospace and motor industries in noncritical applications such as seats, overhead lockers and other interior features on aircraft and body panels in cars. New carbon fibre costs upwards of £10 000/tonne, which is why the industry considers it worth recycling. ‘The UK is taking a lead globally in developing recycling technology for carbon fibre and this research will ensure that we continue to be at the forefront of new developments,’ says Pickering. According to Billy Glover, managing director, environmental strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the Nottingham project will provide ‘key technology contributions’ for carbon fibre composite recycling solutions. While commercial methods based on thermal processing are emerging for extracting the carbon fibre from a composite, this leads to a slightly degraded product. The new research will address the dual problems of how to improve on the existing recycling processes to recover useful products from the polymer resin used to bond the carbon fibres; and how to process the recycled carbon fibre to produce new products that can give the very best structural properties. It will
10
Additives for Polymers
investigate the use of supercritical solvents to extract the filaments; the method will also extract the chemicals out of the polymer resin so there will be less waste. New techniques are also being developed to process the recycled carbon fibre into forms that can achieve much greater proportions of recycled carbon fibre in a composite and so give better structural properties. The £900 000 project is funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board (www.innovateuk.org). In addition to Boeing, the other partners are Ford Motor, composite materials supplier Advanced Composites Group, fibre processing company Technical Fibre Products, carbon fibre manufacturer Toho Tenax and Milled Carbon, a company involved in carbon fibre recycling. Contact: Dr Stephen Pickering, Division of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK. Tel: 44 115 951 3785, Email: [email protected]
Ceresana launches new information portal for plastics industry
I
nternational market research firm Ceresana Research, based in Konstanz, Germany, has
launched an information portal for the plastics industry. The new !nsight database offers access to useful, fundamental information on plastics, chemicals and additives, the company says.
The site currently encompasses three sections: Products, Company and Country. The Products section includes basic information, hazard indications and application examples for the most important plastics, as well as antioxidants, fillers, pigments and other additives. The Company section provides company profiles with helpful information on the most important manufacturers and processors of chemicals and raw materials. It includes individual contact addresses, key company figures, information on product portfolios and production facilities, and the most up-to-date company news. The Country section offers economic data on 64 nations throughout the world, from gross domestic product to raw material supplies, and from exports to energy consumption.
April 2009
INDUSTRY NEWS New research into carbon fibre recycling
T
he aircraft and motor industries could become much greener thanks to new research into car-
bon fibre recycling by engineers at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
Aircraft manufacturers are increasingly using carbon fibre instead of metal to build their planes because it is lighter and stronger – for example, half of the weight of Boeing’s new 787 passenger airliner is made up of carbon fibre composites – but at the moment there is no commercial use of ‘recycled’ carbon fibre in the industry. That could be about to change thanks to a research project led by Dr Steve Pickering of the Faculty of Engineering at Nottingham. The idea is to recycle and reuse the valuable carbon fibre, which up to now has only been disposed of in landfill. The AFRECAR (Affordable Recycled Carbon Fibres) project will develop low-cost, high-strength manufacturing materials based on the recycled fibre. These can be used as lightweight structural reinforcement in the aerospace and motor industries in noncritical applications such as seats, overhead lockers and other interior features on aircraft and body panels in cars. New carbon fibre costs upwards of £10 000/tonne, which is why the industry considers it worth recycling. ‘The UK is taking a lead globally in developing recycling technology for carbon fibre and this research will ensure that we continue to be at the forefront of new developments,’ says Pickering. According to Billy Glover, managing director, environmental strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the Nottingham project will provide ‘key technology contributions’ for carbon fibre composite recycling solutions. While commercial methods based on thermal processing are emerging for extracting the carbon fibre from a composite, this leads to a slightly degraded product. The new research will address the dual problems of how to improve on the existing recycling processes to recover useful products from the polymer resin used to bond the carbon fibres; and how to process the recycled carbon fibre to produce new products that can give the very best structural properties. It will
10
Additives for Polymers
investigate the use of supercritical solvents to extract the filaments; the method will also extract the chemicals out of the polymer resin so there will be less waste. New techniques are also being developed to process the recycled carbon fibre into forms that can achieve much greater proportions of recycled carbon fibre in a composite and so give better structural properties. The £900 000 project is funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board (www.innovateuk.org). In addition to Boeing, the other partners are Ford Motor, composite materials supplier Advanced Composites Group, fibre processing company Technical Fibre Products, carbon fibre manufacturer Toho Tenax and Milled Carbon, a company involved in carbon fibre recycling. Contact: Dr Stephen Pickering, Division of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK. Tel: 44 115 951 3785, Email: [email protected]
Ceresana launches new information portal for plastics industry
I
nternational market research firm Ceresana Research, based in Konstanz, Germany, has
launched an information portal for the plastics industry. The new !nsight database offers access to useful, fundamental information on plastics, chemicals and additives, the company says.
The site currently encompasses three sections: Products, Company and Country. The Products section includes basic information, hazard indications and application examples for the most important plastics, as well as antioxidants, fillers, pigments and other additives. The Company section provides company profiles with helpful information on the most important manufacturers and processors of chemicals and raw materials. It includes individual contact addresses, key company figures, information on product portfolios and production facilities, and the most up-to-date company news. The Country section offers economic data on 64 nations throughout the world, from gross domestic product to raw material supplies, and from exports to energy consumption.
April 2009