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. 2020 Sep 18;12(9):2129.
doi: 10.3390/polym12092129.

End-of-Life Recycling Options of (Nano)Enhanced CFRP Composite Prototypes Waste-A Life Cycle Perspective

Fotini Petrakli  1 , Anastasia Gkika  1 , Alexandra Bonou  1 , Panagiotis Karayannis  1 , Elias P Koumoulos  1   2 , Dionisis Semitekolos  2 , Aikaterini-Flora Trompeta  2 , Nuno Rocha  3 , Raquel M Santos  3 , Guy Simmonds  4 , Glen Monaghan  5 , Giorgio Valota  6 , Guan Gong  7 , Costas A Charitidis  2
Affiliations

End-of-Life Recycling Options of (Nano)Enhanced CFRP Composite Prototypes Waste-A Life Cycle Perspective

Fotini Petrakli et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Life cycle assessment is a methodology to assess environmental impacts associated with a product or system/process by accounting resource requirements and emissions over its life cycle. The life cycle consists of four stages: material production, manufacturing, use, and end-of-life. This study highlights the need to conduct life cycle assessment (LCA) early in the new product development process, as a means to assess and evaluate the environmental impacts of (nano)enhanced carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) prototypes over their entire life cycle. These prototypes, namely SleekFast sailing boat and handbrake lever, were manufactured by functionalized carbon fibre fabric and modified epoxy resin with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The environmental impacts of both have been assessed via LCA with a functional unit of '1 product piece'. Climate change has been selected as the key impact indicator for hotspot identification (kg CO2 eq). Significant focus has been given to the end-of-life phase by assessing different recycling scenarios. In addition, the respective life cycle inventories (LCIs) are provided, enabling the identification of resource hot spots and quantifying the environmental benefits of end-of-life options.

Keywords: carbon fibre reinforced polymer composite (CFRP); carbon fibres (CFs); carbon nano tubes (CNTs); end-of-life (EoL); recycling; sustainability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Global demand based on sales (2018) [20]. CFRP, carbon fibre reinforced polymer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
System boundaries considered for both CFRP prototypes: the SleekFast sailing boat and the handbrake lever. EOL, end-of-life.
Figure 3
Figure 3
End-of-life (EOL) treatment scenarios for the composite products (values given per kg product waste).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mid- and end-point environmental impact categories assessed [91]. LCI, life cycle inventory.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Percent contribution of life cycle stages to the total impact for the two case studies: composite Sleekfast sailing boat and handbrake lever.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Percent contribution of the life cycle stages and of the main raw materials for the two studied cases. CNT, carbon nanotube.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Percent contribution of CF (a) and CNT (b) production on climate change impact category. PAN, polyacrylonitrile.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Percentage difference in climate change impact of the alternative EOL scenarios compared with the reference.
Figure 9
Figure 9
MODCOMP project advanced material prototypes: (a) sailing boat; (b) lever.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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