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Holistic processes for the cost-effective and sustainable management of End of Life of Aircraft Composite Structures

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HELACS (Holistic processes for the cost-effective and sustainable management of End of Life of Aircraft Composite Structures)

Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-06-30

HELACS will be based on i) previous results of end of life aircraft management projects (such as PAMELA or AIMERE), ii) the review of recommendations and standards for aircraft disassembly and aircraft materials recycling (such as the developed for the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association - AFRA) and iii) the experience and support of the biggest Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) entity in Europe, Teruel Airport (PLATA), to implement a cost-competitive and energy efficient solution for dismantling and recycling Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) components.
To do this, stakeholders of multiple areas of the aircraft designing, manufacturing and recycling value chain will collaborate during the project, through a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach, to i) define the current framework, ii) co-construct an effective solution, iii) monitor the project progress, iv) define recommendations for an effective implementation and v) collaborate in the exploitation, communication and dissemination activities.
Thanks to this multiactor approach, HELACS will properly include the European Industry necessities when the current dismantling and recycling processes will be improved to properly manage CFRP components, now and in the future, by transferring innovative technologies and systems in two main pillars:
• Flexible and Portable Robotic Platform with machine learning capabilities and dedicated tools for CFRP cutting and debonding (i. Hydro-jet cutting tool for any CFRP and ii. Resistance welding [bonding/debonding] tool for thermoplastic CFRP, new comers in the aeronautic sector)
• Recycling and valorisation technologies based on optimised pyrolysis processes for improving carbon fibre recycling yield and sizing formulation for improving carbon fibre functionalities (i. sizing agents for mechanically enhancing of recycled carbon fibres and ii. sizing agents for enabling debonding capabilities in carbon fibres for thermoplastic CFRP (debonding via ultrasounds or induction heating technologies )
During HELACS, these processes will be developed, validated and demonstrated in the Teruel airport facilities to improve the recyclability of CFRP components by 40%, increase workforce safety and satisfaction by 70%, allow the value retention of recycled carbon fibres by 85%, reduce the CO2 emissions by 50% and increase the profitability by 30%. Finally, the exploitation and dissemination of HELACS results will mobilise more than 30 € million and generate more than 750 new direct jobs by 2030 by transferring the new dismantling and recycling processes to the European Aeronautic value chain.
Throughout these 18 months, significant progress has been made in the HELACS project, generating the foundations for the development of the tools that will allow us to dismantle thermoset and thermoplastic aircraft. In this way, the methodology (WP1), the robotic dismantling technologies (WP2) and the recycling of composite structures (WP3) have been deepened. The analysis of the different LCAs that will result from the HELACS project has also started. And a correct and constant dissemination has been maintained, allowing to place the project in the European research landscape.

In Work Package 1 (Definition of a cost-competitive and energy efficient EoL for CFRP components in the aeronautic sector) a legal and environmental framework has been developed that allows technology packages to develop in compliance with the law as well as to build on existing knowledge in the field.

In Work Package 2 (Novel dismantling and debonding technologies and systems for CFRP), and taking advantage of the information obtained in WP1, the existing needs to prepare the dismantling site as well as the aircraft itself for dismantling have been studied in depth. As well as the viability of using a existing place as dismantling place base on different characteristics as the position, the distance to the sea, or the local regulations.

Work Package 3 (Recycling of large scale CFRP components and valorisation of Carbon Fibres) has deepened in the revaluation of materials extracted from an aircraft. On the one hand, it has been evaluated how to extract pieces from the aircraft that meet the needs of the revalorization companies (size and format).
Then pyrolysis tests have been carried out to extract the fibre and it has been reinserted into the value chain with improved properties thanks to the addition of agents that increase its wetting capacity and thus its adhesion to the polymeric matrices.
After obtaining the clean fiber, we proceeded to apply a sizing process that will allow us to improve the adhesion properties of the fiber to the matrix. This process has been validated with several thermoplastic matrices such as PA, PU, PP or EP, getting as result the following values. So the impact of the type of sizing on the mechanical properties is: PA>PU>>EP>>>PP.

Work Package 4 (Demonstration and concluding activities) officially started M13, has begun defining the parameters to be measured, as well as data collection to capture the actual material consumption and expenditure of the system and establish the best ways to make it a sustainable process with a low footprint.

In Work Package 5 (Management, Dissemination and Exploitation) AITIIP provided legal, administrative and coordination support to the project
The materials used by the aeronautics sector have been gradually evolving during the last decades increasing the use of composites like carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP). This material characterises by its lightweight, strength and moldability which has allowed the development of more cost-efficient aircrafts with less environmental impact.

The problem arises when these aeroplanes reaches their end-of-live and there is no appropriated technologies to process and recycle materials such as CFRP. According to (Scott, 2019) in general terms around 30% of produced carbon is not properly recovered and ends up as waste at the same time global demand keeps growing (65.000-80.000 metric tonnes per year) being the aerospace sector one of the main contributors of carbon fibre waste. Aeronautical manufacturers, dismantlers and recyclers are aware of CFRP recycling and valorisation opportunities and demand cost-effective sorting, re-using, and recycling processes for the dismantled aircrafts.

The solutions currently in the market are not efficient to handle this kind of material. They are not flexible enough to manage different tasks or the additional equipment and calibration procedures are long and expensive.

HELACS proposes safer and sustainable new aircrafts’ dismantling and recycling processes focussed on the recovery and valorisation of CFRP from composite pieces. HELACS results are expected to contribute to scrape rate reduction by 40%, increase workforce safety by 70% and increase satisfaction by generating higher qualify jobs and providing to them the required skills to face the new profiles for using the cost-competitive and green efficient technologies and systems, retain the intrinsic properties of the recycled carbon fibres by 85% and increasing its value by means of the demonstration of cutting-edge technologies and reduce CO2 emissions by 50% thanks to the introduction of energy efficient production processes and new design approaches that will reduce the waste of the new aircrafts.