Recycling and re-purposing decommisioned construction polymer composites for construction applications

Paper in proceedings, 2020

Fibre reinforced polymer composites (FRPs) are being increasingly used in aerospace and automotive applications due to their high specific mechanical properties. The construction industry has also started taking advantage of the potential of FRPs for both structural and non-structural purposes. The result of this remarkable absorption of FRPs within the worldwide production market, has led to an immense increase of decommissioned thermoset-matrix components. Nowadays, the majority of the decommissioned FRP components are recovered energy-wise through incineration or simply discarded in landfills around the globe. Within the framework of this paper, we present a solution for the extension of the service life of decommissioned FRP components. Decommissioned electrical insulation FRP pipes were granulated and incorporated as fillers within both cementitious and polymer matrix composites. The effect of FRP granulates on the mechanical performance of cementitious and polymer matrix composites is examined to determine the maximum granulate-filler fraction that can be recycled without compromising the mechanical performance and manufacturing process.