Boeing and BMW Ally to Tackle A Messy Problem

By Joseph B. White

German luxury auto maker BMW AG and U.S. aircraft giant Boeing Co. share ambitious plans for the use of lightweight carbon fiber to cut the amount of fossil fuel consumed by their respective products, and now plan to collaborate on solving a common problem: How to recycle carbon fiber scrap.
BMW and Boeing said Wednesday they plan joint research on how to recycle carbon fiber, including shared research on how to automate the process.
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft is about 50% carbon fiber material, the company says. BMW plans to launch late next year the first of a planned line of electric cars with passenger compartments made out of carbon fiber. BMW, like other automakers, is drawn to carbon fiber because it offers the strength of steel but is considerably lighter, which helps improve fuel economy. BMW has separately formed a joint venture with the SGL Group to produce carbon fiber components for its cars.
Advocates of slashing the world’s consumption of petroleum have argued for years that cars should be made of lightweight carbon fiber, and powered by batteries. But low-cost, long-range automotive batteries remain to be invented, and carbon fiber suitable for automobile bodies remains expensive to produce, although costs are coming down. The difficulty of recycling carbon fiber material – especially compared to steel or aluminium – is another obstacle to widespread mass production of carbon fiber car bodies.
Shredding or melting carbon fiber consumes considerable energy, and yields material that isn’t as strong as the original.
The BMW-Boeing collaboration adds the heft of two global giants to research other companies in other industries are exerting on the carbon fiber recycling problem, including big bicycle makers, which use carbon fiber extensively to make lightweight frames.