The challenge of recycling carbon fibre
Gosau is Environmental and Energy Programs Manager for research company, Adherent Technologies Inc (ATI) based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. The company has worked on recycling processes since 1995, with $3 million (€2 million) in funding along the way from the US Departments of Defense and Energy and an alliance with Titan Technologies . Titan is an Albuquerque developer of a pyrolysis process for recycling automobile tyres. “In the mid-1990s,” Gosau indicates, “we ran the gauntlet with pyrolysis, trying to hit just the right temperature/oxygen content sweet spot, and decided it was not optimal for CFRP recycling as our primary process.” ATI has evolved a catalytic conversion technology centred around its batch-based carbon fibre recyclate processing, combining three different processes studied over the past decade, each with specific advantages and limitations. Vacuum pyrolysis, a dry process operated at around 500°C (932°F), recovers resins as marketable liquids and can be ea