A REPORT ON

Mechanical Recycling of CFRP

SUBMITTED BY

Tejas Dhananjay Shinde

Department of Mechanical Engineering
MIT – World Peace University, Kothrud, Pune
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ABSTRACT

Composite materials are widely used in various sectors such as aerospace,

automotive and wind energy. Global increase of demand, particularly for
carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites, unavoidably lead to
high volumes of manufacturing and end of life waste. Currently, the most
common disposal route for composite waste is through landfill. However,
current and impending legislations such as Directive on Landfill of
Waste, have limited the amount of composite waste permitted for
landfilling. In addition, production of virgin composite materials requires
higher energy input in comparison to other counterpart materials such as
steel and aluminium. This calls for an urgent need for composite waste to
be recycled and reused in close loop and cross sector applications. This
study focuses mainly on strength comparison of pristine(virgin) CFRP
with recycled CFRP and conducting Finite Elem on some parts made
from the virgin and recycled material. Also, details about mechanical
recycling, cost estimation for producing virgin material as well as for
recycling the material were studied.

Keywords: composite, pristine

 1. INTRODUCTION

Carbon Fiber

Carbon fibers are fibers about 5 to 10 micrometers in diameter and

composed mostly of carbon atoms. Carbon fibers have several advantages
including high stiffness, high tensile strength, low weight to strength
ratio, high chemical resistance, high temperature tolerance and low
thermal expansion. These properties have made carbon fiber very popular
in aerospace, civil engineering, military, and motorsports, along with
other competition sports. However, they are relatively expensive when
compared with similar fibers, such as glass fiber, basalt fibers, or plastic
fibers.

To produce a carbon fiber, the carbon atoms are bonded together in

crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber
as the crystal alignment gives the fiber high strength-to-volume ratio (in
other words, it is strong for its size). Several thousand carbon fibers are
bundled together to form a tow, which may be used by itself or woven
into a fabric.

Carbon fibers are usually combined with other materials to form a

composite. When permeated with a plastic resin and baked, it forms
carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (often referred to as carbon fiber) which
has a very high strength-to-weight ratio and is extremely rigid although
somewhat brittle. Carbon fibers are also composited with other materials,
such as graphite, to form reinforced carbon-carbon composites, which
have a very high heat tolerance.

Mechanical recycling

Among various recycling methods, one of the most mature technologies

is mechanical recycling. It is currently used on an industrial scale to
recycle waste composites, especially carbon fibre and glass fibre
reinforced plastic. After initial size reduction, the material is ground in a
hammer mill and graded into different lengths. Using mechanical
recycling, CFRP wastes

can be reduced to two fractions: resin powder and a fibrous fraction,

products are commonly used as fillers in lower value materials, such as
bulk moulding compound or sheet moulding compound.

Figure 1

Advantages of Mechanical Recycling:

 It is simple process as compared to other methods.

 It has less impact on environment.
  The equipment used in mechanical recycling remains same even if
the material to be recycled changes.
 Very less number of changes need to done for recycling different
materials or for changing the input parameters.

Steps involved in mechanical recycling process:

Receiving or collecting the material

Storing the material

Sorting

Cleaning

Shredding

Grinding

Re-moulding
Figure 2
 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Studying different parameters in Mechanical Recycling of CFRP

composites and finding suitable applications for the recycled composites.

1.2 OBJECTIVES

 Use the components made from recycled composites where lesser

grade material can be used. e.g. The front wings of an F1 car can
be recycled and later utilized in making of the steering wheel
for the same.

 Evaluating the cost of manufacturing pristine(virgin) CFRP and

also the cost estimation for recycling of CFRP.

 Studying effect of adding pristine material during the recycling

process.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW

 Giovanna Colucci, Oxana Ostrovskaya, Alberto Frache,

Brunetto Martorana, Claudio Badini; observed that the effect of
mechanical recycling of artificially aged PA66CF30 composites on
the final mechanical properties and microstructure was investigated
in the present work. Young’s modulus and tensile strength did not
change in a significant way after the recycling process. In spite of
some reduction of average fiber length occurring during the
grinding step, the recycling process caused only negligible
decrease of tensile strength, being the mechanical behavior of the
recycled composite almost the same of the aged one. The failure
mode of all the composite specimens (pristine, aged and recycled)
was very similar. Fracture occurred at sample sections where fiber
agglomeration could be observed; fiber pull out was always
observed on the fracture surface. In addition, a certain weakness of
the interfacial bonds between fiber and matrix was put in evidence
by SEM analysis on the sample cross-section, which is beneficial
for toughness. Rather good alignment of fibers in the moulding
direction was observed for pristine, aged, and recycled composites.

 K. Makenji; found that there are many different types of plastic

composite waste materials and huge legislative and consumer
drives exist to recover these materials where possible. The number
of plastic types and the fillers used in them together with the
numerous additive or stabiliser types make recycling these
materials a potentially complex model. Plastic composites are
coarsely sorted from other waste products by visual identification.
Good sorting practices of waste materials can reduce the level of
intervention required at later stages and improve the purity of the
 final product. Labour costs have a direct impact on the cost of
recycled materials, manual sorting is widely used in countries
where labour cost is low. Alternatively developed nations are
sending waste materials directly to the low labour cost countries
such as China. These nations then recover the materials using
manual labour; the recovered goods are remade into products back
into the marketplace.
 Essam Shehab, Ghunaim Alanazi and Shoaib Sarfraz; There
are two kinds of CFC waste which can be recycled by using this
framework; the manufacturing waste and the end of life scrap.
Recycling facilities prefer to recycle manufacturing waste rather
than end of life scrap because recycled CFC obtained by recycling
the manufacturing waste has better quality. Based on the work
breakdown structure, the mechanical recycling is simpler than
thermal recycling in terms of activities and machines. Still, the
high cost of the recycling process is preventing the recycled CFC
to compete with the virgin CFC. The proposed costing framework
can be used for different types of carbon fibre composites from
different sectors. It offers opportunities to identify the activities
where the cost is high, hence it can be improved. A cost estimation
tool was built to facilitate the developed costing framework. After
entering the cost of each recycling method, a comparison can be
made between the two recycling process by comparing the
calculated total cost. This research provides a costing framework
for recycling carbon fibre composites (CFC).

 Amaninder Singh Gill, Darian Visotsky, Laine Mears, Joshua

D. Summers; focused on developing a cost model for the PAN
based carbon fiber manufacturing. The cost for four stages of
processing, i.e. Oxidation, Carbonization, Surface Treatment and
Sizing were considered, in addition to the PAN precursor cost. The
cost model was verified against known market prices from three
different carbon fiber manufacturers located in three different
countries over three different continents. The countries chosen
were U.S., Germany and Japan. It was found that given the prices
of inputs (chemical reagents and energy) the cost model could
predict the carbon fiber’s market value per kg within an error range
 of 61.70% to 41.87%. The salient feature of the model was that the
cost elasticity has also been incorporated into the model. This was
done to account for the falling cost inputs as there is a demand for
them by the carbon fiber manufacturers.

3. OUTLINE

a) Collecting used parts or End of Life (EOF) parts made from CFRP.

b) Sorting of materials obtained from used parts or waste from

manufacturing process of virgin materials.

c) Cleaning the material to remove any unwanted debris and oils on

the surface of the material.

d) Shredding and grinding the acquired material to required size.

e) Sizing and palletizing the ground material according to the required

size.

f) Re-moulding the material into the required geometry to obtain

product made from recycled material.

g) Followed by experimental testing to obtain the mechanical

properties.
 4. INPUT PARAMETERS

Sr. No. Parameter Value

1 Pallet Size 2 - 6mm
2 Melting Temperature 280 °C
3 Drum Speed (Grinding) 200 RPM
4 Processing Time 6 min/Kg

Table 1: Input Parameters

5. COST ESTIMATION

One of the biggest limiting factors in the large-scale use of carbon fiber
(CF) in manufacturing is its high cost. The costs involved in
manufacturing the carbon fiber have been formalized into a cost model in
order to facilitate the understanding of these factors. This can play a key
role in manufacturing CF in a cost-effective method. This cost model
accounts for the fixed and variable costs involved in all stages of
manufacturing, in addition to accounting for price elasticity.

Figure 3
Now that all the costs that go into manufacturing the carbon fiber have
been computed from the cost model, the result must be compared to the
known market values of the carbon fibers. The comparison will be done
based on the fixed costs and elastic value of the variable costs that have
been calculated.

Cost for Virgin CFRP

Description Cost/kg (in USD)

Fixed cost 0.04

Consumable and energy specific cost(manufacturing) 4.00

Energy cost for oxidation process 1.02

Consumable cost for carbonisation process 0.60

Energy cost for carbonisation process 0.90

Consumable cost for surface treatment 1.62

Energy cost for surface treatment 1.35

Consumable cost for Sizing process 0.30

Energy cost for Sizing process 0.04

Total 9.87

Market Cost 15(approx.)

Table 2: Cost for Virgin CFRP

As the need for manufacturing low-cost carbon fiber keeps growing,

research efforts on that behalf are being conducted. Recent advances have
been made in the development of lignin as an alternative precursor. This
polymer offers the advantages of being a low cost, abundant and
renewable resource. The properties for the lignin-based carbon fiber are
not as good as the conventional carbon fibers, but undergoing research
indicates that those downsides can be overcome by the identification of
more suitable types of lignin for the manufacturing process. The US
Department of Energy has estimated that the cost for a suitable lignin
precursor, including the required processing and an adjustment for a
carbon fiber yield of ~55%, would end up in $1.52/kg, resulting in a
carbon fiber cost of $6.27/kg.

This is substantially lower than PAN precursors, which start from

$2.2/kg, and the derived carbon fiber cost is above $12.25/kg.

Figure 4

The distribution for costs of different materials and for different processes
involved in the manufacturing of pristine(virgin) can be seen in the above
figure 4.

Cost of Mechanical Recycling of CFRP

Description Cost/kg (in USD)

Collecting End of Life CFRP 0.6

 Grinding 0.9

Filtering and Sizing 0.8

Total Recycling Cost 2.3(approx.)

Table 3: Cost for Recycled CFRP

6. CASE STUDY

3D CAD model of a bicycle frame was created using Solidworks

Software.

Figure 5