Environmental Impact of Composites

1 Impact of CompositesCris Arnold & Sue AlstonSwansea of webinarIntroduction: the potential Environmental benefits and impacts of compositesHow green is it really? Use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)BiocompositesEnd-of-life issues with downsides of compositesComplex materials productionMaterial (per kg)Greenhouse gas emissionsOverall EnvironmentalImpactCarbon fibre100100 Glass downsides of compositesProcess impacts Energy use Solvent release during processing Consumables & cleaningHarder recycling of some Composites than with metals / benefits of compositesMainly in use phaseLower weights lead to fuel savings in aerospace and automotive sectors Connaught benefits of compositesConstruction sectorRefurbishment possible rather than rebuildingFaster construction / less disruption / less benefits of compositesEnergy sectorImproved efficiency of renewable energy generation which may not be possible without

2 Benefits of compositesIncreased lifetimeLess maintenance / corrosion treatmentsMetal matrix and ceramic matrix Composites allow higher temperature combustion processes and hence better fuel , how do we assess the overall Environmental performance? Cycle AssessmentA method of analysing and quantifying the Environmental Impact of a product, process or be applied to almost any situationHas rapidly developed over the last 15 yearsCovered by International Standards (ISO 14040 & 14044) how green is my composite ?Some figures*:Carbon Fibre / Epoxy100%Sheet Moulding Compound74%(Short Glass Fibres/Polyester/Filler)Hemp / Polyester73%Woven Glass Fibre / Polyester67%Job done!

3 ??? -But what do they mean?* BRE/Net Composites Green Guide to Composites of LCAI nitiation Defines what the LCA covers and why we re doing it, assumptions madeInventory Analysis Often termed life cycle inventory Quantitative list of everything measurable all inputs and outputsImpact Assessment Calculates the effects of the Inventory on the environmentImprovement Uses the results to improve the of LCAINVENTORY(data collection)IMPROVEMENTIMPACT -InitiationFirstweneedtodefinethe system cradletograve ,wewilllookata BodyinWhite (BIW) thebasicvehiclestructure forasmallcar, ,2009[1] ,JDeMoor, , ,CIRPA nnals ManufacturingTechnology58(2009)

4 -InitiationAn overview is shown in the process flow:Produce carbon fibreProduce epoxyFabricate composite Body-in -WhiteUse as part of carDispose of composite (incineration)MaterialsEnergyFu elInputs for incinerationSaved -InitiationLCAisoftenusedtomakecompariso nsWhatarewegoingtocomparewithwhat? ,designedtocarry40tonnelorriesfora50year lifetime,madeofsteelvsonemadeofcomposite ?Inthisexample,wetaketheBodyinWhite,driv enduringusefor200000km,asour functionalunit . , tree ecoinvent , tree ofprocessesintermsofaspecificsubstance, Inventory Impact AssessmentThe Impact of the substances in the inventory can be classified into categories such as.

5 Climate change ozone depletionHuman toxicity Photochemical oxidant formation Particulate matter formationIonising radiation Terrestrial acidificationFreshwater and marine eutrophicationTerrestrial and aquatic ecotoxicityLand occupation and transformationWater depletion Metal depletion Fossil depletion -these are taken from the ReCiPe method which is used in this Impact AssessmentNow we can re-draw the tree of processes in terms of a specific Impact , giving a total figure for that Impact for the whole system, human Impact , kgCO2equiv ,ecotoxicityin kg1,4-dichlorobenzeneequiv change (kg CO2equiv)051015202530 CFRPS teelFreshwater ecotoxicity(kg 1,4DB equiv) Impact Assessment0102030405060708090100 Impact AssessmentThisisgoodforlookingatspecific effects,butdoesn tprovideawayofgettinganoverallpicture howdothecategoriesrelatetoeachother?

6 Toenablesomesortofcomparisonbetweencateg ories,thefiguresare normalised . ecopoints or,moreoften,milli-ecopoints(mpts).Thesa meresults, Impact Impact ,themostsignificantimpactoftheBIWisonlan dtransformation, Impact AssessmentOneoptionistogrouptheimpactswe have( mid-pointcategories )intobiggercategories( end-pointcategories ), HumanHealth Disabilityadjustedlifeyears(DALY) Ecosystems Potentiallydisappearedfractionofspecieso vertheyearstheeffectlasts( ) Resources Increasingcostofextraction($) Impact change Human HealthOzone depletionHuman toxicityPhotochemical oxidant formationParticulate matter formationIonising radiationHuman Health (DALY)

7 CFRPS teel02E-054E-056E-05 Climate change EcosystemsTerrestrial acidificationFreshwater eutrophicationTerrestrial ecotoxicityFreshwater ecotoxicityMarine ecotoxicityAgricultural land occupationUrban land occupationNatural land transformationEcosystems ( ) 010000200003000040000 Metal depletionFossil depletionResources ($) Impact AssessmentInsteadofnormalisingeachindivi dualimpact, tchange, Impact Impact AssessmentThisgivesadifferentpicture HumanHealth climatechangethenparticulatematterformat ion Ecosystems climatechange Resources FossildepletionForthe3largestmid-pointca tegories, Impact AssessmentThe3end-pointcategoriescanstil lnotbecombined, HealthEcosystemsResourcesmptsCFRPS teelOverall,ineachend-pointcategory, Impact Impact AssessmentTheexamplewehaveusedheregivest hesamecomparisoninallthreecategories peakoil arehighpriorities Impact AssessmentFinally,howdoestheresultdepend onthe functionalunit wechose?

8 Of of LCAE nablessystemstobecomparedonaconsistentba sisIdentifiesrelativeimportanceofdiffere ntstagesAllowsidentificationofbestimprov ementoptionsDeterminessensitivityofresul tstodata& Guide to CompositesProduced by BRE & NetCompositesUndertook LCA forcompositematerials & processing BRE & Guide -WeightingClimate Fuel Toxicityto Toxicity to Guide Matrix Impact BRE & NetComposites020406080100 PolyesterPolyester + 50% ATHE poxy Guide Fibre Impact BRE & NetComposites020406080100 CSMW oven glassGlass rovingsHempPolypropyleneWoven Guide Polyester Mixing BRE & NetComposites020406080100 Open mixing of polyesterOpen mixing of polyester + 50% fillerOpen mixing of low styrene polyesterOpen mixing of low styrene polyester +.

9 Closed Guide Spray-up BRE & Guide Hand lay-up BRE & Guide Autoclave BRE & BRE & Fibre CompositesInitial work looked at natural fibres as reinforcement in traditional matricesA large number of products use milled natural fibre as a particulate reinforcement, adding stiffness but little strengthMore recently, the boom in biopolymers and bioresins has allowed biocomposites to target products which are 100% biological in FibreTypesNatural Fibres (VegetableCellulosic)StrawFibres Corn Wheat Rice StrawLeafFibres Sisal Curau BananaSeedFibres Cotton KapokFruitFibres CoconutWoodFibres Pine Spruce Maple AspenBastFibres Flax Hemp Kenaf Ramie JuteGrassFibres Bamboo Fibres are Composites !

10 FibresBast fibres have a high cellulose contentTheir cell walls are very thick to provide strength to the stem of the plant Important Natural Fibre SourcesFibreMain CountriesOriginWorld Production 2004 (tonnes)WoodNumerous (>10,000 species)Stem1,750,000,000 BambooChina (>1250 species)Stem10,000,000 JuteIndia, BangladeshStem2,861,000 KenafIndia, ChinaStem970,000 CoirIndia, Vietnam, Sri LankaFruit931,000 FlaxChina, EuropeStem830,000 SisalBrazil, KenyaLeaf378,000 RamieChinaStem249,000 HempChina, EuropeStem214,000 AbacaPhilippines, EcuadorLeaf98,000 AgaveColumbia, Cuba, MexicoLeaf56, ExtractionHarvestingRetting Pond retting Dew retting Enzymatic rettingBreaking or scutchingCleaning and BestNatural task to stabilise plantGood mechanical propertiesLow density Used as reinforcements in lightweight composite partsNon-WovensTextilesExtrusion CompoundsNano of Natural FibresPropertyE-glassFlax FibreHemp FibreDiameter [ m]8-145-4010-50 Density [g/cm3] [GPa] Strength [GPa] to Fracture [%] E-modulus [GPa/g/cm3] Tensile Strength [GPa/g/cm3]