Sustainable Sails: Novel recycling of carbon composites

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Sustainable Sailing is a marine industry R&D company, with a track record of innovation to address the grand challenges of the industry. In this project the challenge of recycling carbon fibre composites is targeted, specifically sails.Modern carbon sails are built from high technology carbon fibre composites, however like most composites, recycling and reuse of these sails once they have reached the end of their useful life are not currently available for sailors across the UK. With over 1.5 million yachts and 1 million dinghies globally, this source of waste is one which is both growing and is not being addressed within the industry.Working with B&M Longworth, the Advanced Materials Research Centre, Farapack polymers and Precision Yachting, Sustainable Sailing is building upon existing collaboration to scale-up their recycling process. They will do this by going from 0.5kg of sails recycled to 50kg in the next 6 months. Along the way, this collaboration will understand the effects of their recycling process upon the different components of the sails. This will include analysis of the fibres to maximise their useability for future projects, including development of technologies to improve Sustainable Sailing's existing Chlorofoils product line. Furthermore, their existing work suggests that some other components of the recycled sail can also be reused, so this project will be using advances in industrial and green chemistry the return these components back other products.This project aims to "close the loop" of high-performance carbon fibre composites, by returning all the components that make up these sails into other products. This will help the UK and the marine industry realise the "circular economy" in which all waste products can be reused and returned into circulation. By focusing upon sails this project will demonstrate that it is possible to recycle other carbon fibre composites, reducing the environmental impact of carbon fibre production and eliminating the need to dispose of these composites into landfill at the end of their useable life.