With capacity for more than 200 non-flying aircraft, the Teruel airport is the largest **aircraft graveyard** in Europe. This Spanish city offers an ideal dry climate for the long-term storage of **aircraft**.
However, Teruel is just one of the many aircraft graveyards in the world, mainly located in deserted and sparsely populated areas. These aircraft, along with other composite products, represent waste from a technological development that we have only known how to store so far.
Challenges of Composites and the Need for Aircraft Recycling
More than 50% of the total weight of each aircraft consists of composites or **composite materials that are not easily recycled**.
These materials are found in diverse products such as wind turbine blades, car bodies, and electronic components, reflecting their importance in the **global economy** and their potential to revolutionize traditional sectors. However, recycling these materials is complex, leading to an **accumulation of waste in landfills** and a reliance on virgin raw materials.
Water for Recycling: Innovation from the University of Cadiz
The supercritical fluids group at the University of Cadiz (UCA) has been researching processes with high-pressure and high-temperature water for waste treatment for decades. Recently, they have successfully developed a process to **dissolve the resin of composites** and **release their carbon fibers**, preserving their structure and mechanical properties.
The Recycling Process
Companies in the aeronautical sector provide small pieces of **waste composites from decommissioned aircraft**. These materials are immersed in water, heated to 300 ºC and subjected to a pressure of up to 100 atmospheres, inside a laboratory reactor. For an hour, the water dissolves the resin, leaving the **carbon fibers** clean.
Thanks to this advancement, the UCA has been included in the RECICOM project, led by the company Titania, to develop an industrial process that allows the production of new high-performance composites from **recycled material**.
Applications and Future of Composite Recycling
The recovered carbon fibers have shown to retain their structure and mechanical properties, allowing their **reuse in new products**. With these fibers, new composite parts have been manufactured, and in collaboration with the company Drontools, a demonstration drone has been built.
The **hydrothermal technology** allows for the recovery of carbon fibers, avoiding the generation of thousands of tons of composite waste and giving a second life to expensive materials. This advancement promises a more sustainable future in aircraft and other product manufacturing, promoting a **circular economy**.
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