#composites, #sustainability, #certification, #recycledfiber, #recycledresin, #recycling, #reclaimedfiber, #reclaimedresin
I’ve seen some rather interesting things come across my desk and in my feeds about composites sustainability and the composite material recycling and reuse industry. I have written about this part of the sustainability challenge for composites fairly extensively because this is our most pressing problem at this time. Specifically what I want to chat about here is what is being done to certify that the recycled materials – fiber and resin both – have adequate mechanical and processing properties to ensure that the parts or structures made using them will be safe for use in safety critical assemblies – think airplanes and cars to begin with.
As it turns out unfortunately not that much has been done in the regulatory or certification agencies to address what standards to apply or how to certify these materials. The lead pic in this post is a fairly recent application of one of the few certification agencies that can certify recycled composite materials for reuse. And of course this is from Europe. This is a pic from Composites World of some reclaimed glass fiber from NlComp (Northern Lights Composites) that were reclaimed using process and equipment from Composite Recycling and recently achieved DNV certification. This material was recycled from NlComp’s thermoplastic composite that they have named rComposite.
NLComp’s rComposite material is a thermoplastic matrix material primarily using Arkema’s inherently sustainable thermoplastic Elium resin, mixed with a number of different fiber types. They have material that is all natural (mostly flax) fiber, glass fiber as was used here, and also carbon fiber. All of these fibers and the major components of the Elium resin can be reclaimed. That is what was demonstrated and what earned Northern Lights Composites its DNV certification.
This material has recently achieved DNV certification under ISO 14021:2016 standards. DNV has relatively recently (2023) become an accredited agency for providing that certification based on a set of standardized tests as well as complete traceability of the materials. DNV is one of the very few certification agencies that can provide this accreditation. This is part of the overall purpose of DNV, and they have been in this business for a number of years. They issue standards that are used in a number of industries and are respected worldwide for the rigor of their standards. They have a standard used in the European offshore wind industry – Composite Components in Critical Applications – DNV-ST-C501 that accredits materials for use in such critical applications as offshore wind turbine blades.
In addition to the fiber that was recovered from the rComposite from Northern Lights, Composite Recycling also performed tests of the recovered thermolysis oil from this thermoplastic based composite and found that it was ~80% methylmethacrylate which is a valuable component that can be used to produce new resins.
DNV has of course been in the recycling certification business for some time. They achieved their accreditation for their recycled material from GreenBlue to their Recycled Material Standard in 2023. GreenBlue is an environmental organization based in Charlottsville, VA that is authorized to provide the labeling for recycled and recyclable materials and products.
There is another agency headquartered in Italy, CSI, S.p.A. that is also a certification agency that provides certification and labeling for a number of different industries, including composites. A bit like Underwriter’s Labs (UL) here in the US, they cover considerably more ground than most other certification and accreditation agencies. And, they have an entire Division of CSI dedicated to sustainability and the certification of “Recycled, Recyclable and High Performance Materials”.
This agency also covers quite a few other certifications across the entire European industrial base, including automotive safety, quality standards, performance standards, and sustainability standards. They are the ones responsible for the CE certification required on a number of European products, again much like the UL certification is here in the US for electrical and other industrial products. Their sustainability certification also extends to agricultural and forest products both for chain of custody and food safety. That is why they also provide the certifications for recycled and recyclable composites in Europe. Chain of custody is critical to managing the overall composite recycling and reuse business to ensure that the materials that are certified will achieve the properties that they are certified to achieve, and that they have come from certifiable sources.
As you can see from this, there is still much more work to be done in this area, and the composites industry both here in the US and in Europe have a long way to go before they can claim that they are certifiably sustainable and that the recycled and reused materials are safe to use in applications where safety is critical. This will be very important to the future of this industry.
That’s about it for this week. I hope everyone that reads these posts enjoys them as much as I enjoy writing them. As usual I will post this first on my website – www.nedpatton.com – as well as on LinkedIn. And if anyone wants to provide comments to this, I welcome them with open arms. Comments, criticisms, etc. are all quite welcome. I really do want to engage in a conversation with all of you about composites because we can learn so much from each other as long as we share our own perspectives.
My second book is now in the hands of my publisher, with just one thing left for me to do. Most of you know that it is about what I have been writing in these newsletters for the last 6 months or so – sustainability of composites and a path to the future that does not include using fossil fuels for either the raw materials or the process energy to make composites. The title of the book, at least for now, is “Close the Circle, A Roadmap to Composite Materials Sustainability.” It truly is a roadmap which I hope that at least at some level the industry will follow. Only time will tell.
Finally, I still need to plug my first book, so here’s the plug. The book pretty much covers the watershed in composites, starting with a brief history of composites, then introducing the Periodic Table and why Carbon is such an important and interesting element. The book was published and made available last August and is available both on Amazon and from McFarland Books – my publisher. However, the best place to get one is to go to my website and buy one. I will send you a signed copy for the same price you would get charged on Amazon for an unsigned one, except that I have to charge for shipping. Anyway, here’s the link to get your signed copy: https://www.nedpatton.com/product-page/the-string-and-glue-of-our-world-signed-copy. And as usual, here’s a picture of the book.
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