New method successfully recycles carbon fiber panels into reusable materials
Original story by Will Kwong
USC researchers have developed a new process to upcycle composite materials used in automobile panels and light rail vehicles, addressing an environmental challenge in the transportation and energy sectors. The study, which was funded in part by a Wrigley Institute Faculty Innovation Award, recently appeared in the Journal of American Chemical Society.
“I wasn’t sure if it was possible to fully recycle composite materials,” said USC Wrigley Institute faculty affiliate Travis Williams, professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “As wonderful as these materials are for making energy-efficient vehicles, the problem with composites is we don’t have a practical route to recycle them, so the materials end up in landfills.”
The chemistry demonstrated in the study — a partnership among Williams and professors Steven Nutt of the M.C. Gill Composites Center at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Clay C.C. Wang of the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Berl Oakley of the University of Kansas — is a new approach that shows that composite materials can be recovered and recycled in a manner that preserves the integrity of the materials.
Projections indicate that by 2030, 6,000-8,000 composite-containing commercial aircraft will reach end of life, and by 2050 retired wind turbines will generate 483,000 tons of composite waste. The new upcycling method retains 97% of the original carbon fiber material’s strength, meaning the fibers from all this waste can potentially be reused for numerous consumer products such as golf clubs, bicycles, and more.
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Read the fully study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society >>