Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
231835 | The Journal of Supercritical Fluids | 2008 | 10 Pages |
Chemical recycling of carbon fibre reinforced composites (CFRCs) has been investigated using subcritical and supercritical alcohols as reactive-extraction media. The epoxy resin that joins the fibres is degraded during the process, producing fibres that retain 85–99% of the strength of the virgin fibres. Methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol and acetone were employed as solvent-reagents to conduct experiments in batch and semi-continuous-type reactors at temperatures ranged from 200 to 450 °C. The impact of flow rate and the addition of alkali catalysts (i.e. NaOH, KOH and CsOH from 0.016 to 0.50 M), was also investigated. Experiments performed in the semi-continuous flow system enhanced the mass transfer steps and reduced temperature requirements, thus eliminations of resin of 98 wt.% were achieved using at 350 °C and 1.1 kg-alcohol/kg-fibre/min and, at the same solvent flowrate at 275 °C using 0.02 mol/L of KOH 96.5 wt.% was obtained.