B&M Longworth Ltd chosen to deliver a project for end-of-life for carbon fibre composites for aerospace industry.

Longworth joins Sustainable Composites partnership with the National Composites Centre (NCC) and Centre for Process Innovation (CPI).

BPF member organisation B&M Longworth Ltd has been chosen to deliver a project for the Sustainable Composites partnership created in 2020 between the UKs National Composites Centre (NCC) and Centre for Process Innovation (CPI).

Sustainable Composites is kickstarting a number of projects to mature existing technologies and to develop new and innovative disassembly, reuse and recycling methods in the move to achieve a circular economy in composites.

Drawing together the knowledge and expertise from the NCC, CPI and Longworth, this project aims to answer the most pressing questions for the wind and aerospace industry concerning end-of-life for carbon fibre composites.

Steam to Value Stream project

The project will investigate how Longworth’s patented DEECOM® process can be used to reclaim high performance fibres, along with recovering some of the matrix material. The fibres reclaimed will then be used in the University of Bristol’s HiPerDiF fibre realignment technology to create recycled, highly aligned semi-preg tapes.

Read more about the project

Originally invented as a cleaning process for the plastics industry, DEECOM® works using superheated pressurised steam to remove resins and reduce polymers. Project for a number of fields of use have proven plastics and value waste streams are reclaimed with reusable performance properties which can then be remanufactured.

John Norris, Longworth chairman said, “This project and the partnership with our colleagues at NCC aligns perfectly with our ambitions for DEECOM® technology and the benefits it can bring to the waste sector. While innovators first and foremost, our passion as environmentalists is to bring low carbon solutions to the industries that we work within. We’re excited to see the outcome.”

Longworth are looking to commercialise their technology with new partners and investors in various fields of use and welcome contact from recyclers dealing with complex or challenging plastics waste streams. Visit https://www.deecomlite.com/

03/12/2020