From aviation to aviation: Environmental and financial viability of closed-loop recycling of carbon fibre composite

By 2050, the aviation sector is expected to generate about 500,000 tonnes of accumulated carbon fibre reinforced plastic waste from the production and end-of-life phase. In this study, aircraft interior applications of recycled carbon fibre (rCF) replacing virgin glass fibre are examined over the full life cycle in terms of environmental and financial viability. The viability of rCF for closed-loop aviation applications are demonstrated across rCF con-version (papermaking; fibre alignment) and composite manufacture (compression moulding; injection moulding) The results show that rCF composites, especially aligned rCF composites, give reasonable environmental (4-31%) and cost reductions (5-31%) relative to virgin glass fibre composites.