Unit of Technology of Fuels, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Waste Manag Res. 2019 Jan;37(1_suppl):73-82. doi: 10.1177/0734242X18820251.
The increasing use of carbon fibre reinforced polymers requires suitable disposing and recycling options, the latter being especially attractive due to the high production cost of the material. Reclaiming the fibres from their polymer matrix however is not without challenges. Pyrolysis leads to a decay of the polymer matrix but may also leave solid carbon residues on the fibre. These residues prevent fibre sizing and thereby reuse in new materials. In state of the art, these residues are removed via thermal treatment in oxygen containing atmospheres. This however may damage the fibre's tensile strength. Within the scope of this work, carbon dioxide and water vapour were used to remove the carbon residues. This aims to eliminate or at least minimize fibre damage. Improved quality of reclaimed fibres can make fibre reuse more desirable by enabling the production of high-quality recycling products. Still, even under ideal recycling conditions the fibres will shorten with every new life-cycle due to production-based blending. Fibre disposal pathways will therefore always also be necessary. The problems of thermal fibre disintegration are summarized in the second part of this article (Part 2: Energy recovery).
碳纤维增强聚合物的使用越来越多，这就需要合适的处理和回收选择，而后者由于材料的高生产成本而特别有吸引力。然而，从聚合物基体中回收纤维并非没有挑战。热解会导致聚合物基体降解，但也会在纤维上留下固体碳残留物。这些残留物阻止纤维上浆，从而无法在新材料中重复使用。在最先进的技术中，这些残留物通过在含氧环境中的热疗来去除。然而，这可能会损坏纤维的拉伸强度。在这项工作的范围内，使用二氧化碳和水蒸气来去除碳残留物。这旨在消除或至少最小化纤维损伤。通过能够生产高质量的回收产品，提高回收纤维的质量可以使纤维的再利用更具吸引力。尽管如此，即使在理想的回收条件下，由于基于生产的混合，纤维在每个新的生命周期中都会缩短。因此，纤维处理途径也将始终是必要的。热纤维解体的问题在本文的第二部分（第 2 部分：能源回收）中进行了总结。
