Recovery of carbon fibres from composite waste by hydrolysis in subcritical water

Chaima Chaabani (1) , Elsa Weiss-Hortala (1) , Jean-Henry Ferrasse (2) , Olivier Boutin (2) , Yannick Soudais (1)

1 RAPSODEE - Centre de recherche d'Albi en génie des procédés des solides divisés, de l'énergie et de l'environnement
2 M2P2 - Laboratoire de Mécanique, Modélisation et Procédés Propres

Carbon fibers reinforced Polymers (CFRP) has boosted several fields such as aeronautic and aerospace industry. Nowadays, they are also increasingly used in automotive, leisure and sports sectors. The residues of these materials are being discarded every year, which creates serious ecological and social problems. Many efforts have been launched in their further utilization after use. Several recycling technologies are assessed: pyrolysis (Jiang et al 2016), steam thermolysis (Ye et al 2013) and solvolysis (Oliveux et al 2015). Chemical recycling using sub and supercritical fluids shows good prospects for recycling carbon fibers. Hydrothermal conversion of waste composite reinforced with carbon fibers was investigated using subcritical water as reactive-media. This process is applied to decompose the PA6 resin as the matrix of the composite to recover carbon fibers.

Keywords: carbon fibers; thermoplastic resin; subcritical water; recycling Presenting author

Domains: Chemical and Process Engineering

Chaima Chaabani, Elsa Weiss-Hortala, Jean-Henry Ferrasse, Olivier Boutin, Yannick Soudais. Recovery of carbon fibres from composite waste by hydrolysis in subcritical water. NAXSOS 2018, Jun 2018, Naxos Island, Greece. ⟨hal-02116849⟩