Life Cycle Assessment of CFRP Production and Recycling

Abstract

This paper described an estimation of inventory data of advanced composite materials. Inventory analysis, especially about energy consumption of production and recycling processes of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) was mentioned. In production process, data of energy consumption and emissions in various fabricating processes were calculated and compared with the data of production of carbon fiber and prepreg (pre-impregnation materials). Amount of energy required in production of carbon fiber is much larger than other processes and it was proved that it is most important process for improvement. In recycling process, data of material, chemical and thermal recycling were estimated. Since energy needed in material recycling is much smaller than that of production process, the validity of material recycling was shown.