Project Lead: Professor Matthew Unthank
Institution: Northumbria University.
Partners: SHD Composite Materials Ltd.
Amount: £ 54k
Scheme: Commercialising Innovation.
Theme/Area: Integration into End Use Sectors/Net Zero/Circular Economy Transition (eg. products, supply chain, end-users).
Brief Description: This project will pilot a fully closed-loop recyclable polymer-fibre composite technology developed at Northumbria University in partnership with SHD Composites, a UK leader in sustainable composites. The focus is on manufacturing demonstration of recyclable polymer-fibre ‘pre-pregs’, which consist of fibres pre-impregnated with a partially cured polymer matrix. Unlike conventional thermoset pre-pregs, which are non-recyclable and disposed of at end-of-life, this technology enables full depolymerisation, allowing both the polymer and the fibre to be recovered and reused to produce new composite components, thereby overcoming a key limitation of existing composite manufacturing methods.