Vol4 num3-3 Manufacturing of carbon fiber reinforced PET from wastes of CFRP and PET bottles

Abstract

This work is focused on two current and important issues. On one hand, 12 millions of tons of PET are thrown into the sea each year. In fact, in spite of being a recyclable polymer, less than 50 % of processed PET is recycled in Europe. On the other hand, thermoset matrix composites are widely used in the industry and the end-of-life products and scraps need to be recycled. Compared to thermoplastics, thermosets present a problem for being recycled or remolded due to their irreversible curing. Many researches are focused on the recycling of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy, presenting three different paths: mechanical, thermal and chemical recycling. Thermal recycling is the most promising because it allows to recover clean fiber. However, it is an energetically expensive and non-environmentally friendly process. Chemical recycling, for its part, needs hazardous products, such as nitric acid, to dissolve the matrix. Finally, both, fibers and matrix, are recovered with mechanical recycling which consists on milling the composite to obtain finer parts. In this work, unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced epoxy is blade-milled and it is used as reinforcement of a new composite. As matrix, PET coming from recycled bottles is used. First of all, pellets of PET are produced from the bottles with a blade mill. Recycled composite and PET are mixed and a sheet is manufactured with a hot plates press. The resulting material is chemically and mechanically tested.