Carbon Fiber Sustainability, Recyclability and Disposal (Essay Sample)

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Carbon Fiber Sustainability, Recyclability and Disposal
Carbon fiber is a composite material with an extremely high tensile strength. Carbon fiber is made from two substances i.e. a binding polymer and carbon. Nylon6 is another synthetic fiber that is produced by ring-opening polymerization. The nylon6 is also tough and elastic as well as having high tensile strength. Due to its non-biodegradable nature, exhausted carbon fiber parts take a longer period to break down and decompose in landfills (Marsh).
Achieving sustainability through the use of carbon fibers is fundamental. Sustainability is achieved through the efficient utilization of natural resources while maintaining the integrity of the environment. Carbon fiber production is an expensive activity. Even though the cost production is high, their property of having a high strength-to-weight ratio combined with rigidity makes carbon fibers useful in different fields especially automotive and civil engineering, aerospace and the production of sports products. Carbon is used as reinforcement while a polymer resin is used as a matrix. The strength of the carbon-fiber-reinforcement polymer depends on two factors i.e. the carbon fiber layout and the ration of carbon fibers to the polymers. The major challenge in the design of active carbon fibers is the inability to predict its fatigue endurance limit. Other durable materials such as steel and aluminum have a definable fatigue endurance limit, unlike carbon fibers. Therefore, safety precautions are paramount in the design of carbon-fiber reinforcement polymers in automotive and aerospace industries to ensure sustainable development.
Recycling of high end-of-life carbon fiber products is fundamental to the sustainable development. The production of carbon fibers is expensive hence disposing of products containing the carbon fibers after use is illogical. Therefore, recycling the products becomes a consideration. Techniques of extracting the carbon fibers from the resin matrix while maintaining the strength of the carbon is a relatively developing technology. The success of the technology is useful in the reclamation of the carbon fibers especially in the automotive and aerospace industries that use the highest amount of carbon fibers (Rush). The non-degradability nature of carbon fibers does not allow dumping as a long-term solution to the waste materials. Statistically, 27000 tons of carbon fibers are produced yearly hence recycling rather than disposal is necessary (Marsh). However, recycled fibers are not as strong as the virgin once hence they can be used in the manufacture of products that do not require a high strength-to-weight ratio such as electronic products (Rush).
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