Development of an epoxy resin for composites that can be broken down at end-of-life and characterization of the thermoplastic polymer recovered from the recycling process

开发可在使用寿命结束时分解的复合材料用环氧树脂，并对回收过程中回收的热塑性聚合物进行表征

• 批准号: 10073824
• 金额: $ 6.05万
• 依托单位: STRUCTURAL ADHESIVES LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Grant for R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10073824
• 关键词: Development; epoxy; resin; composites; broken

Composites are strong, lightweight, and durable so are often used to replace other materials such as metals to save fuel whilst still maintaining the same or improved performance. Every year the UK produces 110,000 tons of composites, however, only 15% of composites are recycled or reused currently which leads to 94,000 tons of glass and carbon fibre composite waste going to UK landfill each year.There are very limited commercial composite recycling methods currently available and these are often not economically viable, especially for glass fibre composites (as glass fibre has a much lower value than carbon fibre). Additionally, those current recycling methods degrade the fibres significantly so they can only be used for limited applications and the resin matrix is not recoverable at all.The products and process developed in this project will address many of the issues facing the composite industry. It will provide a method of recycling composites which will reduce the volume of composites being sent to landfill.The fibres recovered from the recycling process will be of high quality and will reduce the need for virgin fibres. The higher value of carbon fibre will also likely improve the economic viability of the recovery process.To add further to the notion of circularity of economy the matrix resin can be recovered from the recycling process as a thermoplastic resin. This adds value and further improves the economic viability of this recovery process. As a result, recycling of glass fibre composites may be viable with use of this recovery process which is not currently the case with other processes. The recovery of a thermoplastic resin also reduces the industry need for virgin thermoplastic resin which reduces the need for virgin thermoplastics manufactured using non-sustainable resources.

复合材料强度高、重量轻、经久耐用，因此经常被用来取代其他材料，如金属，以节省燃料，同时保持不变或提高性能。英国每年生产11万吨复合材料，然而，目前只有15%的复合材料被回收或再利用，这导致每年有9.4万吨玻璃和碳纤维复合材料废物被运往英国垃圾填埋场。目前可用的商业复合材料回收方法非常有限，而且这些方法往往不经济可行，特别是对于玻璃纤维复合材料(因为玻璃纤维的价值比碳纤维低得多)。此外，这些目前的回收方法会显著降解纤维，因此它们只能用于有限的应用，树脂基质根本无法回收。该项目开发的产品和工艺将解决复合材料行业面临的许多问题。它将提供一种回收复合材料的方法，从而减少被送往垃圾填埋场的复合材料的体积。从回收过程中回收的纤维将是高质量的，并将减少对原始纤维的需求。碳纤维的较高价值也可能提高回收过程的经济可行性。为了进一步增强循环经济的概念，基质树脂可以作为热塑性树脂从回收过程中回收。这增加了价值，并进一步提高了这一复苏进程的经济可行性。因此，通过使用这种回收工艺，玻璃纤维复合材料的回收可能是可行的，而其他工艺目前无法做到这一点。热塑性树脂的回收还减少了工业对原始热塑性树脂的需求，从而减少了对使用不可持续资源制造的原始热塑性塑料的需求。