23. Recycling Technologies of Carbon Fiber Composite Materials

With the expansion of the global carbon fiber market, interest in carbon fiber recycling increases. Especially, concern for the environment, both in terms of limiting the use of finite resources and the need to manage the waste disposal, has led to increasing pressure to recycle materials at the end of their useful life. Therefore, the shift from landfill (current main waste disposal method) to material recycling or thermal recycling is strongly expected. The most important process in recycling technologies is to remove matrix resin and to take out carbon fibers out of carbon fiber composite. In this chapter, the present status of recycling technology development in Japan is outlined. In addition, the environmental and economic loads are introduced by comparing the quantity of LCI and CO₂ emission between virgin carbon fiber and recycled carbon fibers.