Advancing Life Cycle Assessment for Environmental Sustainability of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites

The audio for this session has been boosted from what was presented live.

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) have emerged as promising materials, particularly for lightweight applications, with the potential to reduce environmental impacts across multiple sectors, including automotive, aerospace, and renewable energy. However, realizing their full sustainability potential requires a more comprehensive and context-specific understanding of their environmental performance across the entire life cycle — from raw material production to end-of-life recycling. This study advances life cycle assessment (LCA) practices for CFRP applications by addressing critical challenges across multiple stages of the CFRP life cycle. First, a critical review and meta-analysis of carbon fiber manufacturing reveals substantial variability in energy demand and environmental impacts due to carbon fiber heterogeneity and insufficient data availability. Second, empirical measurements of electricity use in Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) provide new process-specific data for advanced composite manufacturing, addressing a key data gap in existing LCA studies. Third, a comparative LCA evaluates the environmental performance of emerging CFRP recycling technologies (i.e., pyrolysis and solvolysis) to support the development of circular economy strategies.