— By Plasteurope.com staff — 

Westlake Epoxy (Rotterdam, Netherlands; www.westlakeepoxy.com) has announced plans to partner with French recycler Alpha Recyclage Composites (Toulouse; www.arcomposites.com) to scale up the latter’s recycling capacity for carbon-fibre reinforced composites. The companies aim to process 1,000 t/y of waste carbon-fibre composites by 2027 in an effort to meet growing demand.

The family-owned Alpha Recyclage plans to adapt its patented steam pyrolysis process previously used for tyre recycling to composites reclaim. According to the partners, the technology preserves the performance qualities of carbon fibres. The waste will be sourced from aerospace components, automotive parts, and wind turbines.

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Westlake Epoxy said through its access to the French recycler’s capacity, it aims to support its customers in developing applications that integrate the recycled material.

Under the collaboration with Alpha Recyclage, the Dutch subsidiary of US plastics producer and processor Westlake added that it plans to explore solutions to recover organic components from composite materials.