ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOTES ENVIRONMENTAL ASSURANCE

November 2003 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 4

Composite Recycling and Disposal

An Environmental R&D Issue
Aeronautic/aerospace applications, both military and commercial, are accounting for a large share of the
growing composite market in value. However, their share of the market in volume is much smaller. Costs are
high when large amounts of carbon fiber reinforcements are used. These high performance composite materials
have six properties that give them an edge over traditional materials: longer life cycles due to high fatigue
strength, increased corrosion resistance, improved fire resistance, easier design because of functional
integration, possibility of complex shapes & lower weight. Increased usage of composites in military and space
systems, as well as in commercial aircraft development, is expected to continue far into the foreseeable future.

as excessive, they may consider reducing the

number of weapon systems purchased under a
multi-year contract.

Recycling and disposal of composites create issues

that must be addressed. One such issue concerns
end-of-life aircraft structures that contain carbon
fiber composites coated with hexavalent chromium
primer. These composites that are coated with
hexavalent chromium can be classified as hazardous
waste and thus may not be disposed on land due to
possible leaching of the chrome into the ground.

The EPA uses the term “hazardous waste” to

identify wastes that could be harmful to human
Figure 1—ATI reclaimed carbon fibers* health and the environment. RCRA regulation 40
CFR 261 Subpart A defines the terms “solid waste”
The DoD is increasingly emphasizing and “hazardous waste.” A waste is defined as
environmental issues and liabilities relevant to hazardous if it meets the RCRA definition of solid
weapon systems that have reached end of their waste and is specifically listed as hazardous or
design life cycle. These weapon systems need to be exhibits a characteristic of hazardous waste. To be
disposed of in a cost effective, safe, and classified as a hazardous waste, under 40 CFR 261
environmentally responsible way. Due to the Subpart C, a solid waste must exhibit one or more
materials used in these systems, disposal can be of the following characteristics: ignitability,
very costly. corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity.

Disposal costs are to be developed as part of the life This characterization of waste is a very important
cycle cost analysis per the document DoDI 5000.2. concern to companies and manufacturing facilities.
Minimizing disposal costs is in Boeing’s best The cost to dispose of a hazardous waste can be
interest. DoD customers are well aware of life cycle more than 20 times the disposal cost of a non-
costing requirements. If they perceive disposal costs hazardous solid waste. When a waste is classified as
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hazardous, appropriate actions need to be taken to of other work that AMARC carries out, which
ensure that it does not pose a threat to human health involves reclamation of spare parts and the eventual
and the environment if land-disposed. disposal of spent airframes. Once the spare parts are
reclaimed, the aircraft leftover “carcasses” are then
EPA’s Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) require sold to salvage/scrap dealers who specialize in
that protective treatment standards be met before metal recovery.
hazardous waste is land disposed. One method to
determine if treatment standards are necessary is the Two major concerns of AMARC while processing
Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure these carcasses involve composite materials and
(TCLP). The TCLP analyzes the waste and hexavalent chromium coatings. AMARC does not
determines what quantity of a regulated substance remove the coatings or composite parts from these
(such as chromium) is present. If the substance carcasses, and thus these concerns are passed on to
quantity is below the regulatory level, no further the salvage/scrap dealers, who must then contend
action is necessary. However, if the regulatory level with these issues. Due to these two issues alone,
is exceeded, then treatment standards are mandatory many salvage/scrap dealers tend to avoid these
before the hazardous waste can be land disposed. carcasses, with some even refusing to bid on them.
The design and material choices in the long run
Incineration is another option for composite affect the value of the aircraft to be recycled.
disposal, but if the composite is carbon fiber, then it
cannot be incinerated without taking the proper Before 1970, manufacturers were not bound by
precautions, due to the potential release of small strict environmental legislation, as many if not all,
electrically conductive fibers into the environment of the current environmental laws and regulations
that, if not captured, can cause electrical had not yet been fully developed. This lack of
interference issues. legislation permitted the manufacturer to freely
choose various types of materials and
With regards to recycling, salvage/scrap dealers manufacturing processes without being concerned
throughout the country specialize mainly in metal about the environmental ramifications. The
recovery. However, the metal scrap they purchase manufacturing decisions made years ago, without
can often contain carbon fiber-reinforced taking into account the environment due to lack of
composites. A significant concern of these legislation, have had a major cost impact during
salvage/scrap dealers is the proper identification of disposal.
various materials in scrap aircraft assemblies and
how to shred, sort, and recycle this mix. They will One company that has shown an interest in
need to decide whether spending capital on R&D to researching the feasibility of processing such a
develop the capability for processing such a material mix is Huron Valley Steel (HVS). HVS
material mix makes good business sense. was established as a metal recovery and processing
company, mainly processing scrap automobiles.
These scrap dealers have an opportunity to salvage Even though HVS is a leader in processing metals,
large amounts of recyclable scrap aircraft, which it has not had much experience with composites.
are located at the Aerospace Maintenance and HVS recognizes the need to research and develop
Regeneration Center (AMARC), in Tucson, technology that would be capable of sorting and
Arizona. AMARC is a joint service facility recycling composites from metals.
managed by the US Air Force Material Command,
and an aerospace storage and maintenance facility HVS has a Research and Development (R&D)
adjoining Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, which facility in Michigan, Fritz Enterprises, for
provides a service to all branches of the US military sophisticated sorting devices. The Environmental
(Air Force, Navy, Marines and Army), as well as Assurance (EA) group at Boeing St. Louis has
the Coast Guard and other national agencies. asked HVS to study separation feasibility in scrap
aircraft parts containing composites and metals. To
Many of these stored aircraft, which number more obtain scrap aircraft parts, EA is working with the
than 4200, can be returned to an operational status Navy to secure excess AV-8B fuselages for the
in a short period of time. However, AMARC has R&D efforts in Michigan.
also been referred to as “The Bone Yard,” because

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The Navy and EA are requesting that Fritz submit a engineering/environmental division develops
final report to them once the project is completed. processes that specialize in composite recycling and
The report will contain information on the process technology.
and techniques used in the segregation effort as well
as other pertinent information. The Navy has an
interest in such a research program because the
Navy and all other defense agencies, as well as
companies that own and operate commercial
aircraft, are concerned about the liability when the
aircraft reach the end of their design life cycle. DoD
would like to have the option to recycle these
composite aircraft.

The capability to sort dissimilar materials,

composites from metals, is the first step in recycling
composites. However, the ability to extract the
carbon fibers from the composites is probably even
more important.

Composite recycling efforts in the past mainly

concerned grinding, shearing, chipping, or flaking
the composite into suitable size to be used as filler
material in new molded composite parts. Pyrolysis,
thermal decomposition of the polymer at high
temperature, has also been studied as a preparation
method before grinding. Using this approach, the
composite is ground into a fine powder. This
method may be suitable for certain types of
composite recycling, such as in the automotive
industry, whose composite parts typically contain Figure 2—ATI pilot-scale reactor (Image courtesy of ATI)
large quantities of filler. However, composite
aircraft parts usually contain valuable carbon fiber In 1992, ATI began investigating catalytic
and resins, and in order to efficiently extract and conversion of plastics and composites. Catalytic
recycle these components, other recycling processes conversion is a tertiary recycling method that
must be used. produces chemicals or fuels from scrap or waste
products. It’s the necessary first step in recycling
Other processes such as acid digestion could be the complex mixtures in scrap aircraft composite
used to reclaim the fibers. However, this process materials that results in the extraction of carbon
appears to be impractical from an environmental fibers.
point of view. Acid digestion uses hazardous
ATI’s batch reactor process (Figure 2) mixes the
chemicals and creates a mixture that will require
scrap composite, after mechanical size reduction,
further processing. The selection of the recycling
with a heat transfer fluid and catalyst. The mix is
process is very important. It is neither practical nor
then processed under increased temperature and
wise to use recycling processes that produce
pressure. By-products generated include phenolic
hazardous by-products that greatly reduce the
compounds that are being investigated for use in
economical and/or environmental advantages and
phenolic-based adhesives for the wood industry.
benefits of the recycle effort.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), Product
Technology companies, such as Adherent
Development-Phantom Works, has worked with
Technologies Inc. (ATI), have been successful in
ATI and has become actively involved with the
separating carbon fibers (Figure 1) from carbon
assessment and evaluation of its carbon fiber
fiber-reinforced epoxy composites and reclaiming
recovery technology. A life cycle objective of the
the valuable carbon fibers. ATI’s
7E7 is to identify environmentally friendly

3
processes for composite wastes from housings made lighter in weight by use of thinner
manufacturing, through the airplane’s operations, to walls are two examples. Other potential markets for
the end of its useful life. the reclaimed fibers include injection molding resin
compounds, thermoset molding compounds, and
non-woven sheet reinforcements.

The cost for aerospace grade virgin carbon fiber is

~$22.00/lb. ATI estimates a cost of ~$2.50/lb. to
reclaim these carbon fibers. With ~market value for
the reclaimed fibers of $5.00/lb., the ~net market
value for the reclaimed carbon fiber would be
$2.50/lb. The weight % of carbon fiber in
composite aircraft parts is ~65 %. Respective
~composite usage for AV-8B, F/A-18E/F, F/A-22,
and C-17 aircraft is 1,370, 2,930, 5,340 and 15,500
Figure 3-- Scanning electron microscope lbs.
micrograph (500x) of reclaimed carbon fiber
99.78% pure* Figuring 65 weight % carbon fiber, respective
composite aerospace parts for these aircraft contain
Left-over composite scrap, termed off-fall, from the 890, 1,910, 3,470, and 11,700 lbs. of carbon fiber.
fabrication of composite parts, is potentially a large Using a net market value of $2.50/lb. for the
source for ATI’s carbon fiber recovery process. reclaimed carbon fiber, its ~value from the
BCA has provided samples of uncured prepreg, respective aircraft would be $2,200, $4,800, $8,700,
epoxy graphite composite that BCA has processed and $25,200.
through its batch reactor. The results show that the
ATI process could dissolve uncured epoxy resin Increasing use of composites in both military and
and reclaim carbon fibers. Analysis of reclaimed commercial aircraft poses the approaching need to
carbon fibers (Figure 3), performed by ATI, enhance the recycling option over landfill and
indicates very similar properties to virgin fibers. incineration disposal of aerospace composites.
The primary difference is in the length of the Boeing is promoting a cooperative effort involving
reclaimed fiber. Reclaimed carbon fiber, known as the Navy, HVS, and ATI to help each understand
short fiber, cannot be reused in applications where the other’s goals, concerns, and issues. Once these
longer, continuous carbon fiber, is needed. elements are understood, significant progress may
However, the demand for chopped and milled be made in reducing the amount of composites
carbon fiber is projected to steadily grow (Figure currently land filled. Land filling generates no
4). return, places a burden on the environment, and
30 M ille d presents the potential for future liability.
25
C hopped
Millions of Pounds

20
* Source: Final Report—Tertiary Recycling Process
15
to Reclaim Composite Aircraft Components—
10
Contract No. N00421-98-C-1032—Prepared for
5
NAWC, Pax River, MD by ATI.
0
1998 2002

Year
2007
For more information, contact:
George Giulvezan at (314) 234-6213,
Figure 4 -- Projected growing global demand email: [email protected]
for chopped & milled carbon fiber* Bill Carberry at (425) 342-5801,
e-mail: [email protected]
Markets have been identified for recycled carbon
fiber. Cellular phones and lap top computers with

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