The Circular Business Academy (CBA), a part of Gm, is engaged in the RECREATE project addressing “Recycling Technologies for Circular Reuse and Remanufacturing of Fibre-Reinforced Composite Materials”. Here is more information about the project: www.recreatecomposites.eu.
The main objective of the RECREATE project is to develop a set of innovative technologies aimed at exploiting the potential of End-of-Life (EoL) complex composite waste (mainly carbon fibre reinforced composites CFRC, and glass fibre reinforced composites GFRC) as a feedstock for profitable reuse of parts and materials in the manufacturing industry.
The ambition of RECREATE project is:
– to develop and validate in relevant environment (TRL6) novel reuse strategies for current generation, large EoL composite parts (including complex multimaterial composites) based on smart recognition and inspection for sorting (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy – LIBS), high precision dismantling (laser-shock) and repair, T- assisted reshaping, design for disassembly based on reversible joints, AI-assisted decision support systems;
– to develop and validate in relevant environment (TRL6) innovative physico-chemical upcycling technologies (catalyst-assisted green solvolysis, electrofragmentation) allowing simultaneous recovery of high quality, integer, clean fibres and of an organic resin fraction reusable as coating material, at the very end of the multiple reuse processes of parts;
– to demonstrate at TRL6 the use of smart and green reversible thermoset resins as enabling materials for the realisation of the next generation of fibre-reinforced composites (FRCs) with easier repairability and enhanced reusability, facilitating the transition towards recyclable-by-design composite materials and structures.
Moreover, RECREATE will address another key objective, that is the development of a set of new digital tools for:
– the quantitative evaluation of the environmental and economic performance of the proposed technologies (LCA/LCC) as well as their circularity assessment;
– the co-design of innovative digital learning resources, including the retaliation of MOOCS, serious games and digital twins of some speciality technologies developed in the project, with easy adoption and high replicability.
RECREATE project is funded from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. Gm is included as project manager whose task is to develop communication, dissemination and exploitation strategy that will simplify the comprehensive framework of the project and communicate its results to the important stakeholders network.
