Poranek Nikolina, Pikoń Krzysztof, Generowicz-Caba Natalia, Mańka Maciej, Kulczycka Joanna, Marinis Dimitrios, Farsari Ergina, Amanatides Eleftherios, Lewandowska Anna, Sajdak Marcin, Werle Sebastian, Sobek Szymon
Department of Technologies and Installations for Waste Management, Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 18, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences, Wybickiego 7A Street, 31-261 Krakow, Poland.
Materials (Basel). 2025 Jun 5;18(11):2660. doi: 10.3390/ma18112660.
Carbon fiber is essential in many industries. Since primary production is highly energy-intensive, recycling technologies are being sought. A goal of the research was to develop at a laboratory scale a chemical recycling method aimed at recovering carbon fiber. Two variants of the method have been established and environmentally compared with a primary production version.
The life cycle assessment methodology has been used to assess and quantify the environmental impacts. The cradle to gate analysis was performed with the functional unit defined as a production of 1 kg of carbon fiber.
The best environmental option turned out to be a developed chemical recycling technology named Scenario 1. It is a solvolysis performed using an ambient-pressure-operated batch reactor connected to a reflux condenser and an inert gas supply tank, using an ethylene glycol and potassium hydroxide solution. The worst case appeared to be the second variant of the chemical recycling, named Scenario 2 (plasma-enhanced nitric acid solvolysis).
In Scenario 1, a production of the ethylene glycol was recognized as a key environmental driver, while in Scenarios 2 and 3 the energy-related impact was the most influential.
碳纤维在许多行业中至关重要。由于初级生产能源密集度高，因此正在寻求回收技术。该研究的一个目标是在实验室规模开发一种旨在回收碳纤维的化学回收方法。已建立了该方法的两种变体，并与初级生产版本进行了环境比较。
生命周期评估方法已用于评估和量化环境影响。从摇篮到大门的分析以定义为生产1千克碳纤维的功能单元进行。
最佳环境选择是一种名为方案1的已开发化学回收技术。它是使用连接到回流冷凝器和惰性气体供应罐的常压间歇式反应器，使用乙二醇和氢氧化钾溶液进行的溶剂分解。最坏的情况似乎是化学回收的第二种变体，名为方案2（等离子体增强硝酸溶剂分解）。
在方案1中，乙二醇的生产被认为是关键的环境驱动因素，而在方案2和3中，与能源相关的影响最具影响力。
