Cost Modelling for Recycling Fiber-Reinforced Composites: State-of-the-Art and Future Research

Fiber-reinforced composites, such as carbon and glass fibers, are widely used across various industries. This is mainly a result of their outperforming properties in contrast with traditional materials. As a response to the environmental legal enforcement of the recycling of composite materials, several recycling methods such as mechanical, thermal, and chemical recycling, have been developed. Despite various merits, these recycling methods still face challenges, such as the heterogeneity of material, the quality of the recycled product, the high cost of recycling, and a lack of an established market. Since, in many cases, the financial aspect tends to be the major barrier to recycling composites, the appropriate cost modelling of the recycling process requires urgent consideration. To the knowledge of the authors, there is no prior research efforts on the reviewing of cost modelling techniques on composites recycling. Cost modelling research projects for different recycling technologies, with their findings and limitations, are sought from the literature and reported in this paper. It is found that recycling techniques still cannot compete with traditional landfilling in terms of cost, and are dependent on fiber recovery rates and plant capacities. Following a comprehensive literature review, research gaps are identified to formulate the research directions in this field.