SCIENCE CHINA

Technological Sciences
·Special Topic· Green Aviation Research September 2017   Vol.60   No.9:1291–1300
doi: 10.1007/s11431-016-9028-7
•  Review  •

Composites recycling solutions for the aviation industry

WONG Kok1,2, RUDD Chris1,2, PICKERING Steve3 & LIU XiaoLing1,2*
1
Ningbo Nottingham International Academy for the Marine Economy and Technology, University of Nottingham Ningbo China,
Ningbo 315100, China;
2
Ningbo Nottingham New Materials Institute, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China;
3
Division of Materials, Mechanics and Structures, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Received December 6, 2016; accepted March 6, 2017; published online June 8, 2017

Ten of thousands of aircraft are expected to retire in the next 20 years. Aircraft manufacturers are gearing up for a new wave
of recycling challenges as these aircrafts contain significant higher amount of carbon fibre reinforced polymer composite, which
cannot be recycled by the conventional processes designed for metallic alloys. Aircraft manufacturers have been working with
the recycling industry to limit unsustainable dismantling that is harmful to the environment and the potential liability risk of
re-entry of un-certified salvaged parts back to the aviation market. An organised recycling network and procedures have already
been set up for the conventional metallic alloys and will soon be required to include the composite waste. This paper reports the
existing aircraft recycling practice and reviews the key recycling technologies for thermoset composites. Energy consumptions of
these technologies are sought from the literature and are reported in this paper. Progress in development of reuse options for the
recycled fibre is also included with discussion of their advantages and drawbacks. The challenge of working with the fluffy fibre
is considered and the benefit of fibre alignment is highlighted for encouraging a widespread use of the fibre.

composite recycling, carbon fibre, aviation

Citation: Wong K, Rudd C, Pickering S, et al. Composites recycling solutions for the aviation industry. Sci China Tech Sci, 2017, 60: 1291–1300, doi:
10.1007/s11431-016-9028-7

   Introduction
1   extensive use of this material has led to waste disposal man-
Demand for carbon fibre has experienced a significant growth
in the past decade and it is expected that with a compounded
annual growth rate of 12%, the demand will increase from
58000 tonnes in 2015 to 116000 tonnes in 2021 [1]. Despite
the majority of the growth rate is estimated to be generated
from the industrial sector, which mainly consists of automo-
tive and wind energy industries [2], the amount of carbon fi-
bre used in the aerospace industrial remain significantly high.
Carbon fibre reinforced polymer has high specific mechanical
properties, making it an ideal material for engineering appli-
cations where weight-saving is of major concern. However,
*Corresponding author (email: Xiaoling.liu@nottingham.edu.cn)
agement difficulties as the polymer matrix is generally of a
thermoset type, such as epoxy and phenolic, the cross-linked
molecular structure of which has posed a challenge to conven-
tional recycling technology. A considerable amount of inter-
national effort has been devoted to address the issue, driven
by factors like awareness of sustainability, urge of conser-
vation of scarce energy and resource, limited and expensive
landfill.
Main components from the end-of-life aircraft, such as en-
gine and landing gear, are commonly salvaged and re-certi-
fied before returned back to the market. Recyclers are also fa-
miliar with recycling of metallic alloy. However, given more
polymer composites are used in the latest airframe, compos-
ite recycling has become an integral part of aircraft manufac-

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Wong K, et al.    Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9

turer’s ambition of sustainable aviation and also has become a
new challenge for the recyclers as new technology is required
to process this advanced material. More commercial scale re-
cycling facilities are emerging in the recent year, stimulated
by the economic opportunity arising from the significant less
energy use in recycling compared to production of virgin car-
bon fibre. This paper looks at the existing industrial practice
in dealing with end-of-life aircraft and also review the com-
posite recycling technologies available from the market. Po-
tential reuse options are also discussed.
   Aircraft recycling
2   to form Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA), with
Lifespan of a commercial aircraft is decided mainly by eco-
nomical and safety factors. A regular record of maintenance,
repair and overhaul is a necessity to maintain the airworthi-
ness of an aircraft. Avionic technology also requires constant
upgrade to remain compliant with industry health and safety
regulations. When these costs become excessive, the replace-
ment parts become scarce and the temptation to a newer and
more fuel efficient aircraft become irresistible, the airline op-
erator or the leasing company will retire the aging aircraft
from its fleet. In general, this occurs in 25–30 years for civil-
ian aircraft and 30–40 years for freighter, after the aircraft has
made thousands of flights and flown millions of kilometres.
It has been reported that more than 400 aircraft are retired per
year in the world. This rate is increasing and by 2034, there
will be 15000 aircraft to be retired [3].
Recycling of end-of-life aircraft is entirely voluntary and
is not regulated by legislation for its volume is considerable
small compared to vehicle (End of Life Vehicle Directive
2000/53/EC, EU) and ship (The Hong Kong Convention, In-
ternational Maritime Organisation). The retired fleet is gener-
ally stored in an aircraft boneyard, where commonly located
in desert for its vastness, dryness and firm ground1) or in a
remote section of an airfield. However, in the recent decade,
more proactive actions have been taken by the leading aircraft
manufacturers, such as Airbus and Boeing, to address the en-
vironmental challenges and to uphold their product steward-
ship.
In 2005, Airbus led a consortium project, named PAMELA-
LIFE, to provide a life-cycle management for end-of-life air-
craft2). The project performed a comprehensive recycling ex-
periment on a retired Airbus A300 aircraft to develop recy-
cling procedures in safe and eco-efficient conditions. It had
identified a strategy to recycle parts and materials via three
main phases, which comprised decommissioning, disassem-
bling and deconstruction. It was reported that up to 85% of
the A300 weight could be recycled, reused or recovered. A
follow-up project to validate the procedure on a newer A380
aircraft was implemented between 2007 and 2009. In 2009, a
company known as Tarmac Aerosave, jointly owned by Air-
bus and other shareholders, was formed in French to expand
the project into a commercial scale. The company claims
90% of the total weight of aircraft is recovered and with a
recycling rate of at least 10 aircraft per year3).
In 2006, Boeing led a group of 10 aerospace companies
aims to develop and promote safe and sustainable manage-
ment of end-of-life aircraft and components [4]. Currently,
its membership has increased to 70, which include original
equipment manufacturers, dissemblers, recyclers, research
institutes, etc. Its publication of Best Management Practice
has been used as guidance in an audit programme to accredit
companies that follow the minimum standard as specified in
the given practice. This helps to ensure the airline companies
that their retired aircraft is scraped in an environmental re-
sponsible manner, the valuable parts are recovered according
to a safe procedure and the scraps are mutilated to prevent
re-entry into the second-hand parts market [5]. In 2015,
Boeing worked with an accredited demolition company to
dismantle and recycle materials from an ecoDemonstrator
757 and claimed recovered more than 90% of airplane total
weight. The recycling processes for this 30 years old plane
were completed in less than 30 d4).
The residual value of a retired aircraft is between $1million
and $3million and it is estimated that about 80% of the value
is generated from the salvaged engines, provided their main-
tenance records are well documented [6]. The other valu-
able components include landing gear, auxiliary power unit
and electricity generator as well as the avionic equipment
[7]. These components are tagged, tested, re-certified or over-
hauled and resold for reuse in second-hand market or returned
to the airline company as parts for the remaining fleet [5].
Most of the interior components, such as seats, electrical in-
serts and galley trolleys, are reused on other aircraft. Rising
trends of repurposing or upcycling these interior components
for home or office furniture have been seen in the recent years.
Airframe is generally cut into sizes suitable for transport into
recycling plants for sorting into different material streams.
Metals such as aluminium alloy, titanium, nickel-based super-
alloys, stainless steel, etc., are mostly recycled to aerospace

1) Dowling S. The secrets of the aircraft boneyards, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140918-secrets-of-the-aircraft-boneyards, BBC (last accessed Oct 2016)
2) Costes B. PAMELA-Process for advanced management of end of life of aircraft http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dsp-
Page&n_proj_id=2859 (last accessed Oct 2016)
3) Tarmac Aerosave, http://www.tarmacaerosave.aero/index.php?lang=en (last accessed Oct 2016)
4) Duwlet L. AFRA supports recycling of Boeing ecodemonstrator 757 using environmental best practices, https://pitchengine.com/pitches/b8de6c2c-3fd8-4087-8b1c-
d5c437bb984d (last accessed Oct 2016)

Wong K, et al.    Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9
smelter. Non-metal parts such as textile, insulation, mixed
plastic, rubber, etc., will be processed in certified recycling
centres.
The materials used in aircraft have experienced a great
chance over the past two decades, as shown in Figure 1. The
use of composite material has significantly increased as this
advanced material has been proved to offer many advantages
over the conventional metallic counterparts, such as design
flexibility and integrity, weight saving, low maintenance,
corrosion resistance and better fatigue life. Given an average
lifespan of around 28 years, the recently retired aircraft are
mostly from the eighties and nineties, which contain high
level of metallic components. These materials have been
successfully recycled via the programmes suggested by
Airbus and Boeing with recycling rate higher than 80% by
weight. However, newer aircraft with much higher compos-
ite content poses new challenges to the recycling industry as
new technology is required to recycle these new materials in
an economically viable manner.
   Composite scrap
3  
Composite scrap from the aerospace industry can be divided
into two categories: wastes generated during the manufactur-
ing process and parts from end-of-life aircraft. Carbon fibre
and epoxy resin are the two dominant ingredients in making
composite materials and are generally supplied in an uncured
prepreg roll for manufacturing. In the past, the prepreg was
cut manually and had been often quoted to have material util-
isation rate of only 40% [10]. This practise has been widely
replaced with automation in order to shorten the cutting time,
to increase the accuracy and consistency of each plies quality
   (Color
Figure 1    online) Aircraft materials distribution and year of intro-
duction [8,9].
5) Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_787_orders_and_deliveries (last accessed Oct 2016)
6) Airbus,http://www.airbus.com/newsevents/news-events-single/detail/an-airbus-working-group-sets-out-a-composites-recycling-roadmap/, 2014 (last access Oct 2016)
7) Butt S. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2011/october/strategic-collaboration-with-boeing-advances-carbon-fibre-recycling.aspx , 2011 (last accessed Oct
2016)
8) Yu J, http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/02/f29/Boeing%20-%20Yu.pdf, 2016 (last accessed Oct 2016)
1293
and ultimately to reduce waste. The automatic prepreg cut-
ter contains nesting software that can adjust the cutting se-
quence to utilise the given prepreg dimension. It also equips
with marking facility to ensure each cut pieces is labelled to
facilitate precise lay-up in the later stage. Other source of
uncured prepreg scrap arises from those with outdated shelf
or freezer life. These out-of-spec materials cannot be used
again without recertification, a process which is deemed cost
prohibitive. Despite with the advancement in cutting tech-
nology, the buy-to-fly ratio for composite materials is still re-
mains around 1.5 [11]. Given the tremendous growth in com-
posite usage in the latest aircraft structure, the volume of the
uncured prepreg scarp is expected to raise at the same pace.
On the bright side, this creates opportunities for design en-
gineers or entrepreneurs to explore new ways to utilise these
otherwise mechanical sound materials. In 2015, Nilakantan
and Nutt [12] had identified commercial opportunities by up-
cycling the uncured preprep scrap into different forms and
several demonstrators and potential end-products had been
produced.
Perhaps, the greatest challenge to the recycler in years
ahead is to find economical feasible ways to work with
composite from end-of-life aircraft. A typical Boeing 787
aircraft has 18 tonnes of carbon in its structure [13] and 467
units of these aircraft have been delivered and in service5).
When this batch of aircraft reaches the end of their service
life, there will be 8400 tonnes of fibre to be salvaged from
the estimated 13000 tonnes of composite waste. This number
will be higher after taking into account the retired aircraft
from Airbus. Unlike the manufacturing scrap salvaged from
the shop floor, the post-consumer scrap is heterogeneous by
nature, which contains metallic inserts, honeycombs or foam
cores and is also likely to be contaminated with chemicals
like paints, solvents and oil residuals, making the recycling
process more challenging. Initiatives have been taken by
aircraft manufacturers to ensure availability of appropriate
recycling technologies for the composite material. Experi-
ence gained from the existing aircraft recycling programmes
provides valuable information, guidance and best practice
for developing new design approach for disassembly and
recycling. Airbus has set up an advisory board in 2014 to es-
tablish a strategy to recycle 95% of composite by 2020–2025
timeframe6). Boeing have involved in several recycling
projects in collaboration with research institutes such as
The University of Nottingham7) and AFRA8). Review on
thermoset composite recycling is presented in the subsequent
section.
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Wong K, et al.    Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9

   Composite recycling technology

4   by the hot air. A cyclone is used to separate the fibre from
End-of-life composite waste is a genuine challenge in the
recycling world. Thermosets cannot be remoulded for next
generation applications and are not generally biodegradable
by the natural ecosystem. Since the 1980s several recycling
technologies have been studied to address this issue. The fol-
lowing sections give a brief description of the more important
possibilities. A comprehensive review of technologies for re-
cycling thermosetting composites can be found from Picker-
ing [14].
   Mechanical recycling
4.1  
Mechanical recycling, or size reduction, is the simplest ap-
proach, which involves a moderate setup cost and comes with
well-established shredding technology to produce different
grade of recyclates. The recyclates are general grouped into
either powder or fibrous form. In the nineties, ERCOM was
set up in Germany to recycle sheet moulding compound via
the shredding approach. The company ceased operation in
2004 but had proven the feasibility of mechanical recycling
on an industrial scale [15]. In France, Mixt Composites Re-
cyclables has been shredding fibreglass reinforced compos-
ite into recyclates for construction applications9). In another
study, fibreglass reinforced pultrusion profiles were shredded
and used as a reinforcement in polymer concrete [16]. It is
evident that this approach is limited to glass fibre reinforced
composite as the recyclates are generally used as fillers for
the outgoing gas stream. The fibre is collected inside a bin
connected beneath the cyclone. The exhaust is directed to an
afterburner for further oxidisation at 850°C and at the same
time, high efficient heat exchangers are used for energy re-
covery to preheat incoming air. Several distinct advantages
are offered by the fluidised bed process: (1) low labour re-
quirement; (2) a robust and continuous process; (3) capable
of dealing with mixed and contaminated composite scrap; (4)
Capable of separating metallic parts from carbon fibre.
A picture of a scaled-up rig is shown in Figure 3. The rig
is used for technology evaluation and validation in order to
achieve a higher technology readiness level. The drawbacks
of the fluidized bed process are the requirement for large vol-
umes of high temperature air and the marginal reduction of fi-
bre properties through mechanical action in the bubbling sand
bed [20].
   Pyrolysis
4.3  
Pyrolysis is a heating process without the presence of oxygen.
Under an inert environment between 350°C and 800°C, all the
organic  matter decomposes  into gases  and is then  partially
00
00 0

low grade applications. Nevertheless, shredding still plays

00

a very import role in other composite recycling technology 000

00 00 0

as shredding is a necessary step to reduce bulkiness of the 0

00 000
00 0

end-of-life composite parts. Shredding is still playing an im-

portant role in thermoplastic composite recycling by re-gran-
ulating the composite for re-moulding [17,18].
   (Color
   
Figure 2    online) A schematic diagram of the fluidised bed process.
   The fluidised bed process
4.2  
Incineration is a conventional waste treatment process that in-
volves the combustion of organic substances. It reduces vol-
ume of waste by at 95% and energy released from the com-
bustion process can be captured and utilised for heat or elec-
tricity generation. At The University of Nottingham, a flu-
idised bed process has been developed not only for energy
recovery, but also to recycle valuable carbon fibre from con-
taminated or mixed thermosetting composite scraps [19]. A
schematic diagram of the process is shown in Figure 2. The
rig consists of a bed of sand particles being fluidised by hot
air in the excess of 500°C. The bubbling action provides a
rapid and uniform heating condition. Shredded prepreg is fed
into the fluidised sand bed and the high temperature quickly
decomposes the epoxy matric and burn off pyrolytic char, al-
lowing clean fibre to be elutriated away from the hot zone    (Color
   
Figure 3    online) Pilot scale fluidised bed plant.

9) Mixt Composites Recyclables, http://www.m-c-r.com/en/recycling (last access Oct 2016)


Wong K, et al.  
condensed into a liquid. Solid residues consist of the inor-
ganic fractions of filler, reinforcement fibres and minor quan-
tities of carbonaceous substances such as char and coke. Sub-
sequent ashing or oxidation in air is necessary to burn off all
the carbonaceous substances to obtain clean fibres and fillers.
Several thermosetting composites have been subjected to py-
rolysis recycling, and promising results were reported [21].
Table 1 shows the gross calorific values of pyrolysis gases
derived from various thermosetting composites [21]. Un-
saturated polyester created mainly carbon dioxide (around
60vol%) because of the decomposition of ester bonds and
thus gave a relatively low value. In contrast, epoxy resin gave
a much higher calorific value because of the release of around
45vol% of methane. As quoted by Marco et al. [22], pyroly-
sis gas of 29.2–37.3 MJ m‒3 was required to sustain a pyroly-
sis process.
Considerable high interest in pyrolysis process is seen from
the recycling industry as several commercial scale plants
have been established in the recent decades. As shown in
Table 2, these plants are mainly located in the Europe and the
North America and with a combined capacity of 7000 tonnes
per year. Still, the capacity is dwarfed by global carbon
fibre composite production volume, which is estimated to be
100000 tonnes in 2016 [1]. Thus, further expansion in recy-
cling capacity in these plants and more newcomers to enter
this market are expected in the foreseeable future. Attention
has been focused on modelling the pyrolysis behaviour,
which included the effect of mass transport and anisotropic
thermal transport for the polymer composite [23].
Table 1    Gross Calorific Value (GCV) of pyrolysis gases derived from var-
ious thermosetting composites at 500°C [21]
Matrix GCV (MJ m‒3)
Unsaturated polyester 14.5
Phenol 16.2
Vinyl ester 18.7
Epoxy 42.0
Table 2    Commercial pyrolysis process for carbon fibre reinforced com-
posite waste
Capacity, tonnes
Pyrolysis plant Location
per year
CFK Valley Stade
Germany
Recycling
Karborek RCF Italy
ELG UK
Carbon Conversions USA
AMT II-ATI USA 1800 (in planning)
10) Maxey A. http://www.vartega.com/news-and-media/2016/4/1/qa-andrew-maxey-vartega-carbon-fiber-recycling, 2016 (last access Oct 2016)
  Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9 1295
   Solvolysis
4.4  
In solvolysis, simple reactive solvent, such as methanol,
propanol, water, etc. is used under certain combination of
temperature and pressure to reach either a near or a super-
critical state to break down chemical bonds in thermoset
resins and turn them into monomers with lower molecu-
lar weights. Solvolysis is considered to be a more recent
approach and has been actively investigated in academic re-
search. With a supercritical propanol at 500°C and 60 bar (1
bar=105 Pa), epoxy matrix was mostly decomposed, leaving
carbon fibre with unchanged stiffness and marginal reduction
in tensile strength [24]. It was also found that de-ionised
water could decompose epoxy resin at 400°C and under a
pressure of 280 bar. Despite this was well above its super-
critical state, only 79.3wt% of resin was eliminated from the
composite. However, the addition of potassium hydroxide
not only increased the resin elimination rate 95.4wt%, but
also shortened the process duration from 30 to 15.5 min [25].
It is evident solvolysis is an energy intensive process and
efforts have been devoted into the development of a more
economical solution. Shibata and Nakagawa [26] reported
that carbon fibre with near pristine mechanical property
could be recycled from epoxy composite via the use of
benzyl alcohol with tripotassium phosphate as a catalyst at
200°C under atmospheric pressure after 10 h of processing
time. Another atmospheric pressure study shortened the pro-
cessing time to 50 min and at a lower temperature of 180°C
by using polyethylene glycol with sodium hydroxide catalyst
[27]. Recently, Keith et al. [28] reported an optimisation
study on the solvolysis process for carbon fibre reinforced
composites. In 2017, a solvolysis pilot plant with an annual
capacity of 100 tonne of composite will be built by Vartega
Carbon Fibre Recycling LLC in Washington State, USA10).
   Energy consumption of the recycling pro-
5  
cesses
Energy conservation is today a top priority for business
organisations to increase profitability and to derive genuine
strategy over competitor to win more new customers. Thus,
besides the capital cost, the amount of energy consumed to
recycle a kilogramme of carbon fibre has been an important
factor in selection of a profitable recycling process. This
information is business sensitive and confidential for the
1500 commercial carbon fibre recyclers. Nevertheless, a few sug-
gestions can still be found from the open media and academic
1500
literature, which were generally derived from modelling
2000
with conservative assumptions. Table 3 lists the estimated
2000
energy spent in recovering 1 kg of carbon fibre using different
recycling processes. Significant energy saving is found from
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Wong K, et al.    Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9
Table 3    Estimated energy consumption of the main recycling processes
Energy consumption
Recycling process Reference
(MJ kg‒1)
0.3 (shredding rate:
Mechanical size 150 kg h‒1)
reduction 2.0 (shredding rate:
10 kg h‒1)
6 (feed rate:
12 kg h‒1 m‒2)
Fluidised bed process
40 (feed rate:
3 kg h‒1 m‒2)
2.8 (feed rate
unavailable)
Pyrolysis
30.0 (feed rate
unavailable)
63 (17000 tennis
racket/month)
Solvolysis
91(1000 tennis
racket/month)
each cases as compare to the production of virgin PAN-based
carbon fibre, which requires 245 MJ kg‒1 for the fabrication of
PAN precursor and then another 459 MJ kg‒1 for conversion
into carbon fibre [33]. The numbers shown in the table are
only indicative and might have considerable deviation from
the real production process as constant improvement has al-
ways been practised in industry for cost saving. For exam-
ple, it was reported that ELG RCF Ltd had successfully re-
duced 35% in energy consumption11). Nevertheless, pyrol-
ysis has been found to be the most widely adopted process
as an increasing number of establishment of pyrolysis plants
have been reported recently, such as Vartega Inc, US, Carbon
Conversion Inc, US, ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd, UK and CFK
Valley Stade Recycling GmbH & Co KG, Germany.
   Application of recycled carbon fibre
6   toward. The earliest conversion process is the production of
As listed in the Table 3, the mechanical size reduction or
granulation offers the lowest energy consumption amongst
the many recycling options and is capable of working with
heterogeneity of end-of-life composite scrap. The granulated
composite recyclates are generally categorised according to
their size distributions and several attempts have been made
to investigate their reuse potential. Ogi et al. [34] suggested
the benefit of using a smaller size recyclates for higher flex-
ural and compressive strength improvements in concrete ma-
terial. Mastali and Dalvand [35] also reported an increase in
flexural, compressive and impact properties of concrete with
the inclusion of recyclates with an average length of 20 mm.
Thomas et al. [36] described the use of powdery recyclates
with a mean length of 45 µm to form an epoxy resin paste
11) Hill E. Recycle, remake and reuse, https://www.composites-manufacturing.com/recycle-remake-and-reuse/ (last accessed Oct 2016)
12) Technical Fibre Product Ltd, http://www.tfpglobal.com/ (last accessed Oct 2016)
with success in achieving a better mechanical property com-
pared to the plain resin. Other applications include the use
of recyclates in sheet moulding compound [37] and injection
moulding [38]. Despite positive outcomes have been reported
from these academic findings, there is limited uptake from the
[29]
composite industry. This is likely contributed to the use for
low grade applications and in competition with other cheaper
recycled materials such as glass fibre reinforced composite.
[30]
In order to obtain a higher revenue from the recyclates, car-
bon fibre is preferable to be separated from the resin matrix
so that it can be used for higher value applications.
[31] Tensile stiffness and interfacial shear strength of virgin and
[32]
recycled carbon fibres don’t appear very different. In the case
of tensile strength, however, it depends on the chosen recy-
cling process and high degree of strength retention has been
[26]
found from the commercially available pyrolysis processes.
However, a marked difference is in their physical form: vir-
gin fibre is continuous and can readily be weaved into the
trademark woven pattern that perceived for high grade ap-
plication; whereas recycled fibre is short and discontinuous,
without sizing and in a fluffy form, preventing it from being
a direct substitute for virgin fibre and requires special care
in handling due to their airborne nature, which might cause
short circuit and electric shock in electrical appliances and
can potentially cause mechanical irritation to the operator.
Thus, further conversion processes are required to improve
handling and processability of the recycled carbon fibre.
   Milled carbon fibre
6.1  
Composite structural performance depends largely on the me-
chanical property and volume content of the reinforcement.
The market value of the recycled fibre is defined by how
much this structural performance can be attained, which in
turn will define the market that the composite will be targeted
pellet for injection moulding. Recycled fibre is milled into
length in hundred microns and is held intact via a binder ap-
plication. The market selling price of this material is between
€11–18/kg, depending on the size of order [39]. Despite there
is a considerable market for the injection pellet, however, in
a longer term, the market will be saturated and thus other ap-
plications must be sought.
   Nonwoven mat
6.2  
Production of nonwoven mat is another value-added conver-
sion process that is widely practiced by all carbon fibre recy-
clers. The mat can either be made via a dry process by carding
[26] or a wet process via technology borrowed from the pulp
industry12). These are established processes that can be oper-
ated economically in large scale. Nonwoven mat comprises
  
Wong K, et al.   Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9 1297

filamentised fibres that is distributed randomly and this re-
sults in a high degree of loftiness in its as-received form. The
fibre volume content that can be obtained from a compos-
ite moulded at 1 bar pressure is around 10%. Higher vol-
ume level can only be obtained with greater moulding pres-
sure, as illustrated in Figure 4 [40]. The moulding pressure
was between 20 and 140 bar for making these composites.
A positive linear correlation between composite moduli and
fibre volume content is seen but it ceased at 30% volume
content for the composite strength performances. Such drop
in performances were attributed to the degradation in fibre
length and creation void content at high moulding pressure.
Figure 5 shows fibre length distribution obtained from the
moulded composites and evidently the plots are moving to-
ward the shorter length sides with higher fibre volume level.
It was found that there was only 10% of fibre from the 40vol%
composite that were longer than the critical fibre length, ex-
plaining the reduction in strength values. Higher void level
was also found from composite with higher fibre volume con-
tent and this was likely caused by disruption in resin flow due
to the formation of a complex network made of the broken
short fibres.
Nonwoven mat is suitable for noncritical structural applica-
tion and it was used as a bulking plies for making tooling for
aerospace application [41]. A couples of versatile way can
also be used to produce nonwoven mat with increased func-
tionality. Carbon Coversions patented a 3-DEP process that
is capable of producing complex net-shape preforms made of
nonwoven recycled fibre mat as large as 1.8 m × 1.8 m [42].
Thermoplastic material, whether in the form of powder, fil-
ament or film, can potentially be included in the nonwoven
mat, producing a commingled structure ready for thermo-
forming. Wong et al. [43] reported a moulding optimisa-
tion for a comingled mat containing nylon fibre and recycled
carbon fibre. This paper highlighted the important selection
of thermoplastic matrix to fabricate composite with decent
mechanical performance. Research and development in non-
woven mat manufacture continues to be of importance to the
composite industry as it is built on an established know-how
and is capable of lending itself to existing moulding technol-
ogy, such as resin film infusion and compression moulding
for semi-structural applications. However, with a random, fil-
amentised fibre architecture, the maximum practical volume
content is limited to about 30%. Higher volume fraction can

   (Color
   
Figure 4    online) Mechanical properties of composite reinforced with recycled carbon fibre nonwoven mats at various fibre volume content [40].

   (Color
   
Figure 5    online) Fibre length distribution from composites at various fibre volume contents [40].
1298  
Wong K, et al.    Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9
only be realised through fibre alignment, a conversion process
to arrange individual filament to a preferential direction to
form a close-packed structure. This structure will help to pre-
serve fibre length retention as composite can be moulded at a
lower moulding process.
   Fibre alignment
6.3   moulded at 80 bar via resin film infusion to form a composite
Much work has been done at The University of Nottingham
in development alignment process for the discontinuous re-
cycled carbon fibre. Initially, a bench-top centrifugal rig was
built according to the principal outlined by an ERDE process
[44]. It was then followed with a series of process optimi-
sations to increase the level of fibre alignment. A schematic
diagram of the rig is shown in Figure 6. It comprises mainly a
nozzle, which is located inside a horizontal and rotating per-
forated drum, with its internal surface laid with a layer of fine
mesh. Fibre suspension is prepared separately and attention
is given to ensure a good dispersion quality is achieved with
minimum presence of fibre bundles. The nozzle injects the
fibre suspension across a certain width of the drum inner sur-
face. Vacuum suction is applied underneath the mesh to pro-
mote rapid removal of the dispersion medium. Centrifugal
force resulting from the drum rotation action also speeds up
the drainage of the dispersion medium. The fibre deposition
process continues until a target mat areal density is achieved.
The mat is later washed with warm water to remove the re-
maining dispersion medium and then coated with an epoxy
based binder.
A 2(6-1) fractional factorial experiment design was con-
ducted to identify the main process variables that affect the
alignment quality [45]. The six factors under consideration
were fibre length, fibre loading in the suspension, glycerine
viscosity, nozzle diameter ratio, aligned mat areal density
and relative speed between the rotating drum and slurry
deposition rate. Alignment quality improved with a higher
relative speed ratio and nozzle diameter ratio but was nega-
tively affected by higher mat areal density and longer fibre
   A
    schematic representation of the fibre alignment rig.
Figure 6    sandwich panel (b).
length. Fibre orientation distributions were determined by
measuring fibre elliptical geometry from polished compos-
ite castings. It was found that the highest alignment level
was that 94% of the fibres were laid within ±10° from the
preferred orientation. Outcome from the study discovered
main variables for optimisation. Later, mats of 35 g m‒2 were
with 60% fibre volume content. There was minimum dam-
age to fibre length despite the mats were subjected to 100 bar
compression pressure for fibre consolidation [46]. A picture
of the aligned mat and a micrograph of a cross section of the
moulded composite are shown in Figure 7. High degree of
fibre alignment can be seen. Another set of design of experi-
ment was performed with attention focused on the effects of
nozzle geometry and suspension jet behaviour on alignment
quality [20]. The outcome was that composite with 46vol%
of fibre content was obtained with an autoclave pressure of 7
bar. The composite tensile stiffness and strength are around
82 GPa and 610 MPa respectively.
Fibre alignment will remain the focus within the recycling
industry as it can open up new applications for the recycled
carbon fibre. Main concern is to ensure the conversion
process is cost efficient without jeopardise the overall re-
cycling cost. A couple of demonstrators for aircraft cabin
application were fabricated using aligned mats produced
by Technical Fibre Products Ltd in an Afrecar project, a
consortium project led by The University of Nottingham.
Figure 8  shows a  seat back  moulded with  PPS resin  with
   Top
Figure 7    view of an aligned mat (a) and a micrograph of a composite
containing 60vol% aligned recycled mat (b) [46].
   Demonstrators
Figure 8    made of aligned recycled fibre. Seat back (a) and

Wong K, et al.   Sci China Tech Sci   September (2017)  Vol.60  No.9
a (0/90/0) aligned mat stack. The fibre content was 36.5% 12
by volume. For the sandwich panel, the aligned mat was im-
13
pregnated with phenolic resin to form a prepreg, which was
later moulded by compression moulding. The phenolic resin 14
met the FAR25.853 requirement.
15
   Conclusion
7   16
It is welcoming to see the initiative actions taken by the ma-
jor aircraft manufacturers to address the recycling issue of
end-of-life aircraft. Best practice techniques for aircraft re- 17
cycling have been formulated and are being practised by cer-
tified dismantlers and recyclers. Cost saving strategy imple- 18
mented in the shop floor will ensure minimum generation of
manufacturing scrap. The manufacturers are also committed
19
to engage in recycling activities targeted at composite waste.
More efforts are required to improve the technology readiness
level of the various recycling technologies and their scalabil- 20
ity should be accessed economically. Many challenges still
need to be overcome by the carbon fibre recyclers, particu-
21
larly to have a consistent quality control check for the recy-
cled fibre and to reduce energy consumption. Given more 22
commercial recycling activities are emerging, another chal-
lenging issue is creating new opportunities for expanding the
23
use of the ever increasing volume of recycled carbon fibre. It
is also important to change user’s perception of recycled car-
bon fibre being a low grade material for its usage is generally 24
found in low grade application. Recyclers are encouraged to
promote awareness and recognition of the value of the recy- 25
cled carbon fibre by creating applications that can compete
with metallic counterpart.
26
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