The case for recycled carbon fiber is a complicated one. The industry is built on the hope of solving problems — namely, the desire to keep carbon fiber waste out of landfills and to fill a potential gap between carbon fiber supply and demand. It is commonly estimated that around 30% of produced carbon fiber ends up as waste. Meanwhile, as valuable material ends up in landfills, most analysts agree that annual demand for the material could surpass current annual production capacity within the next few years. The average estimated global carbon fiber demand is around 65,000-85,000 metric tonnes per year, with a global nameplate capacity (which is more than actual capacity) of around 150,000 metric tonnes, according to estimates presented by Brett Schneider, president, global fibers, Hexcel (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) and Dan Pichler, managing director of CarbConsult GmbH (Hofheim am Taunus, Germany) at the December 2018 Carbon Fiber conference. As reported by CW contributor Amanda Jacob in March, some analysts estimate that carbon fiber demand could exceed supply by about 24,000 metric tonnes by 2022. (see “Building confidence in recycled carbon fiber.”)
And while commercial suppliers of recycled carbon fiber (rCF) point to reclaimed and repurposed material as a potential solution to this supply and demand gap, the rCF industry has its own challenges. While the technology to recycle carbon fiber composites has existed for several years and is capable of yielding a product with mechanical properties very near that of virgin material, the composites recycling industry is relatively young and is still in the early stages of developing markets for the materials it produces from recyclate. As confidence in the quality of fiber being produced by recyclers increases, questions about cost and availability have come to the forefront. Perhaps the largest challenge for the industry is the concern over supply chain security.
“The technologies are actually there, and they’ve existed for quite a while, but the supply chain just hasn’t been vetted,” says Andrew Maxey, CEO of Vartega (Golden, Colo., U.S.). “Without the right pieces coming together you can have the best technology in the world, but you’re not going to have material to recycle and you’re not going to have any products to put it in.”
Commercial suppliers often look to the aerospace industry as a source of production scrap and end-of-life material to be used as recyclate, yet while the amount of waste created by the aerospace industry is large in terms of what is going to the landfill, many OEMs and fabricators have been reluctant to rely on it as a steady supply source for a high-volume product line.
On the other hand, some progress is being made. In December 2018, Boeing announced it will supply carbon fiber recycling specialist ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd. (Coseley, U.K.) with cured and uncured carbon fiber waste to be recycled for use in secondary products for other composites manufacturing applications. The agreement is the first formal material supply relationship between a carbon fiber recycler and a major aircraft OEM and seems to be a good portent for the industry.
As the advanced air mobility market begins to take shape, market leader Joby Aviation works to industrialize composites manufacturing for its first-generation, composites-intensive, all-electric air taxi.
The structural properties of composite materials are derived primarily from the fiber reinforcement. Fiber types, their manufacture, their uses and the end-market applications in which they find most use are described.
Cryomotive’s CRYOGAS solution claims the highest storage density, lowest refueling cost and widest operating range without H2 losses while using one-fifth the carbon fiber required in compressed gas tanks.
In 2006, guest columnist Bob Hartunian related the story of his efforts two decades prior, while at McDonnell Douglas, to develop a thermoplastic composite crytank for hydrogen storage. He learned a lot of lessons.
Composites are used widely in oil/gas, wind and other renewable energy applications. Despite market challenges, growth potential and innovation for composites continue.
Starting on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, CW will begin “gating” its staff-produced premium content, asking all new website users to provide some information about themselves — name, title, employer, email address — before they are provided free access to the content.
We are doing this because the ways CW’s audience finds and accesses our content is changing. Google’s search algorithms, increasingly, make it difficult to connect CW’s content with the people who might make use of it. On top of that, generative AI like ChatGPT is serving up CW content to internet users without attributing that content to CW.
As a result, it has become increasingly important for CW evolve its audience development strategy and learn as much as possible about who is accessing our content, what content they are accessing and how they are accessing it.
With this audience development strategy, we hope to do two things:
First, we will be better able to deliver directly to our audience the editorial content that aligns with the composite materials, processes and technologies that interest them.
Second, we will be better able to connect the materials, equipment and services our advertisers supply with the audience that is most interested in them.
CW plays a distinctive role and has earned a place of esteem within the focused and specialized industry it serves. Large developments in the media landscape are forcing us to change the way we communicate with our audience. We are confident that our audience values the role CW plays in their professional lives and will join us in this effort to stay connected to them
We thank you for your continued interest in and support of CW and welcome any questions you might have about the brand’s new content gating strategy.
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