TOKYO — Mitsubishi Chemical is getting into the business of recycling carbon fibers from rejected and spent plastics reinforced with the material.
Carbon fibers are lighter and stronger than steel and easier to shape, but they have found only limited industrial applications to date because of their high cost.
The Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings unit intends to use the recycled carbon fibers to cultivate new customers and new applications.
Although the recycled fibers are not as strong or heat-resistant as new ones, they are less expensive and can also be used as an additive to enhance the features of plastics. Mitsubishi Chemical intends to promote their use in producing materials for auto parts, among other purposes.
The recycling business will be conducted by subsidiary Shinryo, which already has installed equipment at Mitsubishi Chemical’s Kurosaki plant in Fukuoka Prefecture. The factory has the capacity to recover 50 to 100 tons of carbon fibers a year by heating the reinforced plastic to leave only the fibers behind through vaporization.
The group plans to increase the scale of the recycling process tenfold once sales channels have been established and the business takes off. It will start by recycling carbon fibers from the below-standard reinforced plastics rejected at Mitsubishi Chemical’s production bases. Eventually, the group will also recycle spent plastics collected elsewhere.