Public Funding for Lineat Composites Limited

Lineat have produced a first to market highly aligned pre-preg tape, made out of recycled carbon fibre (rCF). Feedback across the market has been very good, but most interest lies in dry tape material, that can be pre-pregged later, or used in other applications like non-crimp fabrics (NCFs). The aim of this project is to develop the process of adding a low weight binder to Lineats tape and develop the manufacture of NCF material made from rCF. These rCF-NCFs will be made in collaboration with ITA & Saertex, one of the market leaders in NCF manufacture. These rCF-NCF materials will be characterised and used to make a demonstrator in collaboration with Greenboats, to showcase the potential of rCF in NCFs. Alongside this guidelines for the use of rCF NCFs in manufacture will be published, along with a life cycle analysis (LCA). By developing an rCF NCF it will introduce recycled carbon fibre to a brand new audience. The goal of using Saertexs waste to produce new NCF will be an exciting demonstration of the potential of rCF and the circular economy. This will help to reduce the growing problem of carbon fibre waste, diverting significant amounts from landfill and saving CO2\. It will also expand Lineats market offering both through accessing the NCF market, as well as through the development of a dry tape system

SCALE-UP addresses the challenge of high-volume sustainable lightweighting in Battery electric Vehicle using composite materials and delivering four innovations. *  A lighter, sustainable/lower-CO2e, affordable door, as alternative to aluminium benchmark, anticipating future legislation and decarbonisation of aluminium. * A high-volume, affordable, sustainable carbon fibre wheel breaking the ceiling of state-of-art production volume through deployment of innovative design and manufacturing process. * Production scale-up of high-performance recycled carbon fibre materials to allow mass production of recycled carbon fibre composite retaining up to 90% of the original performance. * Digital tools using new modelling methods predicting the feasibility, performance and quality of the final products.

This Analysis for Innovators project applies Swansea ASTUTE Centre of Excellence expertise on on material surface characterisation to Lineat's novel carbon fibre recycling process. Carbon fibre is well known for its high strength and lightweight properties but has a heavy cost and environmental burden. It is 40x more expensive than steel with 20x higher CO2 emissions per kg, yet less than 10% is recycled making it one of world's most expensive single-use materials. Carbon fibre may be recovered from articles made from carbon fibre composites, but less than 10% is re-used with about 50,000 tonnes landfilled globally p.a. And, the UK relies heavily on carbon fibre import. Improved and expanded capabilities for recycling carbon fibre is a clear and urgent need. Recycled use is currently limited to filler or felt, with poor performance, and as a consequence the market is volume and value limited to less than 10,000 tonne or 200mn USD for basic compounding applications. Lineat has shown how up to 50% of virgin fibre can be replaced with its aligned recycled fibre, offering a high value solution. Lineat's processes recovered short chopped fibre into a new continuous tape consisting of aligned discontinuous fibres which when aligned can substitute virgin material. Alignment is done by first dispersing fibres into water and then spraying them through a patented hydro-alignment set-up. However, the productivity and economics of the process are at present limited by difficulties in dispersing fibre at higher concentrations. The surface of the carbon fibres can vary greatly between waste sources and require different dispersion strategies. Based on theoretical limits, a 10x increase in production speed should be possible helping to save more carbon fibre otherwise destined for landfill. To achieve this objective ASTUTE will use advanced techniques for characterisation of the fibre surface, leading to optimal selection of additives to promote fibre dispersion. In parallel, Lineat will trial these in its process to maximise dispersion concentration and fibre alignment quality, leading to a high value solution for recycled carbon fibre.