Lessons learned when assessing emerging composite materials using life cycle assessment

Paper in proceeding, 2023

The modern era of carbon fibres and carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs) started in the mid 1950s as the U.S. air force Materials Laboratory started producing carbon fibres to develop high strength composites. However, the historically high cost of carbon fibres has until recently kept the use to a small range of applications [1]. It is not until recently that the use of CFRP has become widespread, consequently, CFRP should be considered an emerging material [2]. This makes the environmental assessment difficult as there is a lack of available production data. On the other hand, the emerging nature still makes technology changes possible. This mitchmatch between available data for assessment and production improvements is sometimes referred to as the Collingridge Dilemma. Collingridge described a paradox between information and control: impacts are hard to predict when technology is not yet fully developed, while change becomes more difficult when the technology develops [3].

This paper aims to describe a multi-year effort to use life cycle assessment (LCA) for assessing the environmental impacts of emerging composite materials, focused on the specific example of CFRP. We will describe how we started with a meta-analysis to identify hotspots and key aspects for decreasing the environmental impacts of carbon fibres and CFRPs, to more recent efforts looking into possible future multifunctional use of CFRP for both light-weighting and energy storage in electric vehicles. Results focus on key insights and lessons learned in the process of assessing emerging composite materials using LCA as well as recommendations for decreasing the environmental impacts of carbon fibre composites.