In the present paper, the environmental impact of an innovative technology, based on a zero-waste approach, for reclaiming carbon fiber prepreg scraps is assessed. The innovative process, proposed within the European project CIRCE, aims at reclaiming scraps produced during the cutting operation of virgin prepreg, avoiding the waste materials landfilling or incineration. The prepreg scraps were transformed into a ready-to-use raw secondary material by using two specifically developed automated systems for cutting and peeling of the scraps. By exploiting the prepared scraps in a compression molding process, recycled composite parts were produced. The evaluation of the environmental impact was carried out by means of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, using the different impact assessment methodologies based on the Cumulative Energy Demand, Global Warming Potential and ReCiPe methods. Furthermore, tensile tests were performed at room temperature to investigate the mechanical properties of the recovered scraps products. In order to evaluate the environmental benefits of the innovative compression molding production with recovered prepreg scraps, the LCA analysis was also performed on two different traditional virgin production scenarios, i.e. the compression molding production with virgin prepreg and the autoclave processing with virgin prepregs, both used for the production of CFRP parts. The results show that the reclaim process leads to a strong reduction of the environmental impacts with respect to traditional composite production processes, demonstrating that such process can represent a valid alternative for a more sustainable manufacturing of composite products.

在本论文中，评估了一项基于零废物方法的用于回收碳纤维预浸料废料的创新技术对环境的影响。在欧洲项目 CIRCE 中提出的创新工艺旨在回收原始预浸料切割操作过程中产生的废料，避免废料填埋或焚烧。通过使用两个专门开发的用于切割和剥离废料的自动化系统，将预浸料废料转化为即用型的原始二次材料。通过在压缩成型过程中利用准备好的废料，生产了回收的复合材料部件。环境影响评估是通过生命周期评估 (LCA) 方法进行的，使用基于累积能源需求的不同影响评估方法，全球变暖潜势和 ReCiPe 方法。此外，在室温下进行拉伸试验以研究回收的废料产品的机械性能。为了评估使用回收的预浸料废料进行创新压缩成型生产的环境效益，还对两种不同的传统原始生产方案进行了 LCA 分析，即使用原始预浸料进行压缩成型生产和使用原始预浸料进行高压釜加工，两者都使用用于生产 CFRP 零件。结果表明，与传统的复合材料生产工艺相比，回收工艺大大减少了对环境的影响，表明这种工艺可以代表更可持续的复合材料产品制造的有效替代方案。