Recycled Thermoplastics and Recycled Fibers – a Pretty Good Mix

#composites, #sustainability, #thermoplastics, #recycledfibers, #recycledresin

I saw an article in Composites World this week that I found intriguing (https://www.compositesworld.com/news/fibias-project-targets-recycled-tpc-innovations-automotive-applications).  The lead pic in this post, which is highlighted in the Composites World article, is from a research institution in France that this article talks about – Institut de Recherche Technologie (IRT) Jules Verne – yes they named one of their research institutions after the author of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”.  I read all of his stuff as a kid, along with Herbert, Heinlein, Asimov, Niven, Zelazny, and a whole host of others.  Is that why I love engineering so much? 

From https://www.irt-jules-verne.fr/en/

Anyway, this is a fairly major announcement from IRT Jules Verne’s new program they are calling FIBIAS++, in which they are developing thermoplastic composites based on recycled materials for use in the automotive industry.  The FIBIAS++ program is a collaboration between Compositec, a leading automotive composites supplier in France; Stellantis, the Dutch auto manufacturer that bought Chrysler; FORVIA, one of the largest automotive technology suppliers also located in France; and IMT Nord Europe, one of the largest engineering schools in France.  The goal of this collaborative program is to develop a means of reducing the carbon footprint of automotive composites by using recycled glass fiber, carbon fiber, and PET (from recycled soda bottles), and marrying that with some organic (plant-based) thermoplastics to make structural and non-structural parts for the automotive industry.  Their intent is to do this while still maintaining the mechanical and formability properties of high end thermoplastic composites that are in use today.  This is important because the automotive industry is heavily safety regulated as we all know, and getting a material system qualified to meet the strict standards imposed by the industry will be quite a feat for recycled materials.  The fact that the FIBIAS++ project is also aimed at making a material that has the same formability characteristics as current thermoplastic composites that are qualified for the auto industry will allow auto manufacturers to use this material in their current processes and tooling as a direct replacement for current petroleum based thermoplastic composites. 

When I read the article in Composites World, I was intrigued by their approach, and that also got me to wondering what other new initiatives are going on both in Europe and in the US, and maybe for industries beyond the automotive industry, like aerospace and sporting goods.  And I was particularly interested in what people are doing with thermoplastic composites because of their inherent recyclability.  With a thermoplastic composite, all you have to do is to melt out the thermoplastic at the end of the useful life of the part and, if you are careful about it, you end up with clean fiber and clean thermoplastic that can be used again and again.  The fact that Project FIBIAS++ is using the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) from old soda bottles and other recycled plastics is a tangible step in the right direction for dealing with all of the plastic waste that eventually ends up in the ocean. 

What I found when I did a quick search on the use of recycled thermoplastic composites in sporting goods was also interesting, and sort of a mixed bag with a few stars.  That is, while not all sporting goods companies are on board with using recycled plastics and composites in their products, there are a few good examples of very large and prominent companies paying attention to this. 

Adidas is probably the best example of changing the product mix of one of the largest sporting goods manufacturers to dedicate themselves to reducing or eliminating their carbon footprint.  Since 2024 they have replaced virgin polyester with recycled polyester in all of their products.  This is part of their commitment to making the change in their materials portfolio from virgin plastics and composites made using petroleum to recycled and renewable materials.  One result of this initiative that is already on the market is a training shoe that uses recycled plastic fibers from plastics collected from the ocean by Parley for the Oceans.  They are calling this their “Ocean Plastic Trainer”, and it fits within their lineup of shoes made using recycled materials.  The shoe that they demonstrated as a concept shoe in 2015 was made from reclaimed fiber from illegal deep sea gillnets that have been recovered by Parley.  These are the nets that you see in the news that have drowned a number of whales and dolphins.  The reclaimed fiber recovered from these illegal gillnets makes a very good material for the upper of a high quality running trainer. 

Here in the US, the venerable Oregon based athletic goods company Nike, started by none other than Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight of University of Oregon track fame, has also committed to what they call “zero waste, period”.  They are the other very good example of a very large sporting goods company that has made the commitment to eliminating waste at all points in their product stream and being dedicated to becoming a completely circular company.  They have developed means of taking recycled and sorted scrap plastic materials and converting them into materials for all sorts of new products.  While this is mostly shoes and athletic wear at present, they are also working on initiatives to enable recycling of other scrap materials like leather cut offs and blended textiles that are inherently difficult to recycle.  They have even gone so far as to enable nearly infinite reuse of their large shipping cartons which they call “Infinity Boxes”.  These are the large cardboard boxes that have several dozen pairs of shoes that are used between distribution centers and deliveries to running stores.  In addition to the Infinity Boxes, they have also changed their packaging to be completely recyclable, eliminated the paper stuffing in the toes of running shoes, and encouraged all of their distributors and dealers to recycle as much of the packaging as they can. 

Other sporting goods companies have also taken on the responsibility of making their goods using recycled materials as well as making their products inherently recyclable.  Patagonia has been doing this for a number of years and is only one more example of the sporting goods industry using recycled fibers and plastics in their products. 

In addition to the sporting goods industry, the aerospace industry has also begun to come on board with using not only thermoplastic composites, but also recycled thermoplastic composites.  One good example is the use of a Toray Cetex® carbon fiber / PPS continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite that had gone through a two-step recycling process to produce and extruded “dough” as they term it to produce a part for a GKN Fokker aircraft.  The pic below shows the Bell V-280 Valor tilt rotor aircraft that has this material induction welded and formed thermoplastic “ruddervators” and fully recycled compression molded thermoplastic composite access panels.  The access panels were compression molded using reclaimed Toray Cetex® TC1100 carbon fiber / PPS thermoplastic composite material. 

This aircraft was successfully flight tested with this fully recycled thermoplastic composite part from Toray and the induction welded thermoplastic composite ruddervator.  What was done for the access panels was to take reclaimed trimmings from the standard manufacturing process for thermoplastic composite aircraft components, turn that into flakes that contained long discontinuous carbon fibers embedded in the PPS thermoplastic resin and raise the temperature to slightly melt the PPS, fuse it into a dough like consistency product that was then compression molded into the access panels for the Fokker aircraft.  This demonstrates a completely circular use of thermoplastic composites because at the end of this part’s life, it can easily be remelted and remolded into another part.  The only remaining step to making this entirely circular is to use plant-based acrylonitrile for the carbon fiber and plant-based oils to make the PPS, both of which have been demonstrated at industrial scale.

To that end, there are other initiatives that are ongoing in these industries to move from petroleum-based plastics to bio-based plastics and incorporate those into fully circular composites.  Airbus has an initiative in that regard where they are building bio-composite demonstration parts for their A350 series composite large transport aircraft.  Boeing is also of course in the midst of this as well because both of these companies recognize that they are some of the biggest users of composites and they need to develop sustainable and circular value streams if they wish to be in business 50-100 years from now. 

That’s about it for this week.  As always, I hope everyone that reads these posts enjoys them as much as I enjoy writing them.  I will post this first on my website – www.nedpatton.com – as then 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 publisher wants to change the title of my second book, but for now, it is still “Close the Circle, A Roadmap to Composite Materials Sustainability.”  They did this with my first book, but this time around since I’m trying to make a point I am resisting changing it to what they like.  I’ll let everyone know how that turns out.  The book truly is a roadmap to a circular and sustainable business model for the industry 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.