Carbon Fiber Recycling Starts Up in U.K.

United Kingdom-based GKN Aerospace has signed an agreement with Recycled Carbon Fibre Ltd. (RCF), based in Birmingham, U.K., to recycle uncured carbon scrap from its aircraft component manufacturing plant in Cowes, U.K. The recycling will take place at RCF’s carbon recycling facility in the West Midlands of England.

GKN Aerospace estimates that nearly 100 metric tons of carbon scrap from the Cowes site will be recycled in the next 12 months as part of the agreement. The recycled material will find homes in a wide variety of products, including paints and coatings, thermoplastic polymers, composite tooling and deep sea buoyancy products, according to a GKN news release.

In the next five years, as GKN Aerospace anticipates that its plant in Cowes will reach full production levels, there may be a 30 percent increase in the quantity of scrap to be recycled. “Our composite research facility has been working with RCF for some time, and our aim now is to commence a program that will ultimately establish recycling as an integral part of our full production manufacturing process in the U.K. and globally,” says Rich Oldfield, director of technology for GKN Aerospace.

The percentage of composite structures in the latest generation of aircraft has reached 50 percent by weight in some cases, according to GKN.

“To balance the performance and environmental gains achieved through using composites in aircraft operations, it is vital the industry progresses towards greener manufacture on a number of fronts, and we believe an effective recycling process is at the heart of that progression,” says Oldfield.

“Until now, the only solutions for disposing of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) waste have been landfill or incineration, both of which are harmful to the environment,” says Steve Line, managing director of RCF. “The unique RCF process allows GKN Aerospace to act in an environmentally friendly way. From RCF’s point of view, the GKN Aerospace [scrap] will be an important part of our feedstock supply in the coming years. ”

GKN Aerospace is a supplier of composite and metallic structures to the global aerospace industry and has played a role in the development of composite manufacturing processes in the sector.
 
More information on the company can be found at www.gknaerospace.com.