Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Partners: Composites Automation, NREL, Arkema Chemical, Axiom Materials
This DOE-funded program demonstrates the feasibility of recycling carbon-fiber composites through multiple iterations while maintaining high material performance. The effort integrates three enabling technologies: the TuFF (Tailorable Universal Feedstock for Forming) short-fiber alignment process developed at UD-CCM, carbon-fiber recovery via epoxy acytolysis, and recycle-by-design acrylic polymers.
The program successfully achieved three recycling cycles with 100% modulus retention and 38% strength retention in third-generation composites, proving the technical viability of scalable, sustainable composite reuse through closed-loop manufacturing.