The Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI) has been awarded with the German Resource Efficiency Award 2013 for the research project ‘CarbonWasteCycle – recycling concept for carbon fibre waste’.

The objective of the project is the re-use of carbon fibre cuttings or waste or bad batches for (extreme) lightweight construction using suitable recycling processes.

“Because sustainability is an important matter from a researcher’s perspective, we are proud to be honoured with this award,” said Andreas Berthel, Managing Director of the STFI.

Resin-free carbon fibres

The winner of the German Resource Efficiency Award 2011 presented the idea for the pyrolytic recycling of already resinified carbon fibres. This technological approach is the basis for today’s state of research in carbon fibre recycling.

“After long lasting research work, we were able to successfully implement the recycling of resin-free carbon fibres. Therewith, we consequently continue to follow the path of high performance material recycling. Today we are able to manufacture carbon fibre nonwovens as a raw material for lightweight constructions in non-load-bearing areas,” said STFI Research Director Dr Heike Illing Günther.

“This innovation offers great possible savings for carbon fibre-processing industries and provides an essential input for the resource-efficient handling of the energy-intensive manufactured carbon fibres.”

Honouring outstanding ideas

The intelligent and efficient application of raw materials becomes more and more a competitive factor for German organisations.

With the German Resource Efficiency Award, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology honours outstanding ideas of material-efficient products, technologies, services and application-oriented research results.

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