The technical-scientific meeting organized by the TUV SUD Academy in Munich on 10 and 11 May 2022 was an opportunity to take stock of the techniques currently used for the disposal and recycling of composite materials as processing scraps and at the end of their life, the presentation by Dr. Horbach comprehensively illustrates the sustainability of composite materials in their production, use and end of life.
Previously, in the Interreg Italia Slovenia project on 29 November 2019 in Ljubljana the experiences of recycling and disposal of both Italian and Slovenian industrial realities were shared
At the moment, the most convenient recycling of composite materials is to put them in the production cycle of cement factories, in the formation of clinker the glass fibres enter as silico-aluminate aggregates while the polymer resin provides energy. Carbon Compositi carried out an analysis of the energy input typical of a composite laminate ground with a chain mill of the Austrian company Lindner in the laboratory of an important Italian cement factory.
The European Composites Industry Association (EuCIA) confirms that recycling through co-processing in cement kilns has been technically and commercially proven to be cost-effective and sustainable.
Through this technique, composite waste and end-of-life products are recycled as raw material for the formation of cement and as energy for its production.
The use of composite materials in cement factories is also permitted from a regulatory point of view as described in the directive on the end of life cycle of vehicles (2000/53 / EC) and the waste directive (Waste Framework Directive 2008/98 / EC), declare that the recycling of composite waste complies with the legislative measures mentioned above.
A small investment and an agreement with a cement factory could solve the composite recycling problem with an undoubted environmental and economic advantage.
In the meantime, catalytic depolymerization technology will become economically advantageous, see the one used for PET recycling illustrated in the AOC presentation.