Strongwell Looking at Green Composite Materials

The demand for environmentally friendly materials is growing and will continue to grow. Strongwell, perhaps the world's largest pultruder, recently announced their Green Initiative. This is a fantastic move in the correct direction. Products made with composite materials are in fact environmentally friendly. Composites are inherently lightweight and non-corrosive, which is why they are used in wind blades, automotive, and aerospace.

The life cycle of composites needs to be closely analysed. For example, although a steel structure can be recycled at the end of life, the life span may be shorter, and thus, the overall environmental impact could be greater over time. This all needs to be measured on a analytical and straight forward level.

This being said, FRP composites must figure out a recycling solution. Yes composites are "recyclable", but no company is doing it on a large practical scale... Yet...

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Recycled Plastic as a Building Material

There are a few building materials already using recycled plastic; some composite decking products use recycled polyethylene grocery bags. The video above describes a whole new building product. Here, it appears the variety of ground up plastics are held together by a thermoset. If this is the case, the plastic will act as the reinforcement in the new composite material...

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Recycling Composite Materials

For many reasons, composite material products need to have a better solution for their end of life. Thermoset composites have difficulties in reprocessing, however thermoplastic composites are showing some promise. Technology Review discusses some breakthroughs in recycling PET, which may provide some foundation for recycling fiber reinforced PET in the future. Essentially, researchers at IBM have figured out how to chemically break down PET to their original parts, which then can be used again. Traditional recycling of PET uses heat and pressure to melt down the plastic.

Although recycling composite materials is necessary, composites still provide valuable environmental savings during their life. In composite transportation products such as marine, rail, aerospace, and automotive, the fuel saving and carbon reduction benefits can outweigh the downside of not being able to recycle. Here is a Swedish study of a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA for short, and likely an acronym we hear often) of fiber reinforced composites.

In the study, the researched compared the LCA of a steel ship with composite sandwich structures. Even though steel is recycled in the end, the emission reductions and corrosion benefits of using composite materials outweigh the recycling benefit.

Now, imagine the LCA comparison when fully recyclable composites are used...

Photo Credit: jsbarrie via flicker

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