Brochure about RECREATE European project which aims to develop a set of innovative technologies aimed at exploiting the potential of end-of-life complex composite waste (mainly carbon fiber reinforced composites, and glass fiber reinforced composites) as a feedstock for profitable reuse of parts and materials in the manufacturing industry.

1. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No.
101058756.
INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
FOR CIRCULAR REUSE AND
REMANUFACTURING OF
FIBER-REINFORCED
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Part of the

2. AMBITION AND KEY
CHALLENGES
The key challenge of the project is the reduction of cost of
fibers in the composites market, which is expected to
decrease the cost of composites. This can drive a wider
penetration of fiber composites in various applications,
especially in the e-mobility sector.
Recycling related issues present the greatest challenge for
composites manufacturers. Therefore, exploiting complex
composites, mainly carbon fibre reinforced composites
(CFRC) and glass fibre reinforced composites (GFRC) as a
feedstock for profitable reuse of parts and materials in the
manufacturing industry provides main expected impact
deriving from the project results.
The expected impact is further enhanced by limiting the
market threats through the demonstration of viable
demand-driven solutions of circular business cases.
Picture 1: Representation of different recycling processes for
thermoset composite materials.
The main ambition of RECREATE project is to develop a set
of innovative technologies all aiming to exploit the
circularity potential of End-of-Life (EoL) complex composite
waste.
Simplified from (Gonçalves et al., 2022)
Complex material compositions and crosslinked nature of
composites, especially thermoset composites, make their
recyclability difficult. Most of the composites currently in
use are disposed of in landfills, or incinerated. As a
consequence, by enhancing the greatest market
opportunity, by lowering the cost of reusable materials
available in traceable and certified way RECREATE is meant
to deliver a core change to the composites industry.

3. MARKET
The demand for both composites and high-performance
fibre materials, especially carbon, at affordable costs is
foreseen to grow steadily in the next few years in EU,
driven by progressive banning of landfilling of composite
waste and growing needs in many manufacturing sectors.
It is therefore crucial that new technological alternatives
are identified, so to allow the recovery and reuse of
materials and components in an environmentally and
economically sustainable way.
Target sectors
1. Wind energy industry
2. Aeronautics industry
3. Automotive industry
4. Transportation industry
5. Aviation industry
6. Consumer goods (sport) industry
7. Industrial coatings industry
Target groups: European SMEs (end-users and
technology providers), composite component
manufacturers, composite material suppliers, resin
suppliers and other SMEs in B2C context.
Other stakeholders: designers, cross-sectoral
business facilitators (clusters), public and legislation
bodies and manufacturing companies in strategic EU
sectors
Target industries and market segments interested in the
project results range across different sectors and include
European SMEs and large corporates as end users and
technology providers.
RECREATE directly affects 70% of composite consumption
sectors in the EU through its nine demo cases. Moreover,
in terms of geographical distribution of composites use in
manufacturing, the project covers 90% of the European
market.

4. IMPACT
Economic impact
It is expected that a successful demonstration of new
cross-sectorial business cases for the re-use of glass and
carbon fibers and resins in high added value products may
results in over €200 million in cost savings by 2030.
Expected savings relate to reduced cost of fibers (glass:
-40%; carbon: -70% with respect to virgin) while keeping up
with specification characteristics as well as by
remanufacturing and re-use of composite structures.
Expected economic benefits are estimated at around €96
million per year in the wind energy industry, an increase of
value added for the aerospace industry of €80 million per
year and a reduction of material cost of about €42 million
per year in the automotive industry by 2030. Societal impact
Well over four thousand knowledge intensive jobs may be
created in the targeted industries by 2030 thanks to the
implementation of the new circular economy approaches.
Environmental impact
Materials savings of over fifty thousand tons of waste per
year, 2.64 TWh per year of energy and 1555 thousand tons
of CO2 per year in the considered project scenario
Scientific impact
New breakthroughs and multi-disciplinary scientific results
on a wide range of topics including Digital Tools and Green
Technologies for a new vision of demand-driven Circular
Economy

5. The project is being implemented by 21 partners.
Academic partners and research organisations:
Tampere University; Politecnico di Milano; Fraunhofer
IWU and WKI; Icam Quest; University of Patras; Gaiker;
and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Technology providers: Invent; Iris Technology
Solutions; Rescoll; and Grifo Multimedia.
Post-use products managers and recyclers: Cobat
and Carbon Clean-Up.
End users: Res-T; Benasedo; HEAD Sport; Geven; and
EDAG Engineering.
Get in touch:
THE CONSORTIUM
www.recreatecomposites.eu
@RecreateComposites
info@recreatecomposites.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No.
101058756.
Public awareness, Dissemination and Exploitation
Associations: APRA Europe; AVK; and META Circularity.
Representatives of Consortium partners at the launch of the project in
Milan, June 2022. Photo: Politecnico di Milano