Toray develops recycling technology to retain carbon fibre strength and surface quality

Toray has started providing prototype samples to customers with a view to them developing performance and decorative materials for diverse applications, such as automobiles, construction, electricals and electronics, and daily necessities. The company will push ahead with technical assessments matching customer needs.

CFRP applications include aircraft and wind turbines. Chemical recycling as a reducing agent in steel furnaces is gaining traction for recycling CFRP. Technologies are emerging pyrolysing waste CFRP at high temperatures to recover and reuse fibres, with the market expanding particularly for injection moulding applications. To broaden applications, there is a need for technology that can suppress thermal damage¹ to recycled carbon fibres and control resin residue² and that can be applied to diverse types of waste CFRP.

Toray applied its accumulated expertise in organic synthesis and polymer polymerisation to innovate a decomposition agent that breaks down degradation-resistant, three-dimensionally crosslinked³ thermosetting resins at lower temperatures than conventional methods. The company used this agent to decompose CFRP waste from aircraft, wind turbines, automobiles, and other sources. The recycled carbon fibre from this process retains over 95% of the single-fibre tensile strength of petroleum-derived virgin carbon fibre. Toray expects carbon dioxide emissions from this technology to be less than half those from manufacturing virgin carbon fibre.

References

1. Thermal damage (degraded physical and chemical properties) occurs when exposing carbon fibres to high temperatures or oxidisation during pyrolysis.
2. Residue refers to undecomposed or partially decomposed resin on carbon fibre surfaces during separation.
3. Three-dimensional cross-linking results from chemical or physical bonding between polymer chains.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/04112025/toray-develops-recycling-technology-to-retain-carbon-fibre-strength-and-surface-quality/