An innovative technology to valorise carbon fibre from pre and post-consumer composite waste.
Innovation
Due to its ubiquity in lightweight construction, wind energy and gas storage, carbon fibre is a key material to support energy transition.
But the environmental footprint of carbon fibre itself as well as the lack of solutions to deal with end-of-life composites are a clear disincentive for their wider use.
This is the reason why, Extracthive has been developing, since 2016, an innovative recycling approach for carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs):
- Based on an innovative solvolysis process.
- Yields clean and undamaged fibres.
- Patented by Extracthive.
40 Tons
of CO2 eq / ton of fibre produced.
85%
of carbon fibre composite waste is landfilled or incinerated.
2%
of carbon fibres on the market are recycled.
Mains concerns about carbon fibre
Carbon fibres are literally the “stuff as dreams are made on”. They are lighter than aluminium, tougher than steal, and are processed employing textile techniques which set no limit to the creativity of designers. Once glued together with a suited polymeric matrix, they combine lightness with extremely high strength and rigidity as composite materials.
However, 90% of today's carbon fibres are petroleum-based, and their production is very energy-intensive. This leads to a material with a high environmental impact and high cost.
Source
Identifying and sourcing waste best suited for recycling from industrial users
Recycle
Efficient, low environmental impact technology that makes fibre recycling scalable
Sell
Tailor-made, high-quality, recycled carbon fibre-based products, enabling us to address several target markets
Environmental impact
The PHYre® technology has been designed to minimise both energy use and solvent consumption, to produce a carbon fibre with the lowest possible environmental impact.
This results in a reduction of up to 90% in GHG emissions compared to virgin fibre. Additionally, all impact indicators established by the European Commission are significantly reduced.
Climate change
Acidification
Eutrophication
Lonising radiation
Land use
Water deprivation
