Recovery of Glass Fibers from Fiber Reinforced Plastics

Recovery of glass fibers from fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) has been tackled by our novel technology based upon thermally activated semiconductors such as Cr2O3, NiO, TiO2, and alpha-Fe2O3. This is a scientifically proven technology which utilizes a vast number of thermally-generated oxidative holes for instantaneous decomposition of filler-free thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers. No shredding or grinding of the scrap FRP is necessary in the present system, nor is the use of organic solvents. FRP plates were simply placed in contact with powdered Cr2O3 and heated at about 350-500 degrees C. As soon as the FRP was sufficiently heated, the polymer matrix began to decompose into H2O and CO2, leaving behind only glass fibers without any deterioration of their quality. The glass fibers were perfectly recovered, exactly in the original form of "chopped strand mat". Our system can recover glass fibers as well as thermal energy. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2011044]