The Chinese Way to Recycle Carbon Fiber Waste

According to Chinese media reports, a team of researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University has developed a new technology and equipment for recycling carbon fiber composite waste material.

The total amount of carbon fiber composite waste material in the world is expected to reach 50,000 metric tons by 2020. As reported, the amount of carbon fiber will exceed more than 25,000 tons and will be worth more than 760 million US-Dollar, according to experts’ estimations. Therefore, recycling is worthwhile and the carbon fiber in the composite waste material still has a high recycling value. The technology developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University researchers is said to be undertaken on a large-scale operation, with an annual processing capacity exceeding more than 200 tons. “Earlier, only three companies in Germany, Japan and the United States had an industrialized technology for recycling carbon fiber composite waste material,” the publication “China Daily” gave account.

Thus far, the Chinese technology has been listed in the 2015 automotive industry standards to guide the recycling and reuse of automotive materials by the China Automotive Technology and Research Center.

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