Composites let us design and make better products.
From lightweighting vehicles and aircraft to reduce emissions, adding strength and flexibility to super-turbine blade design, to increasing product lifespans by decades through corrision resistance and durability.
Composites already play an important role in driving decarbonisation. But there is more we can do. We are acting now to build a future using sustainable composites. Harnessing our expertise to redefine a new generation of products that will create a greener, cleaner future for all.
Answering the challenge
Only 15% of the 110,000 tonnes of composites produced in the UK each year will be reused or recycled at their end-of-life. There are limited options for recycling, with processes that often degrade the materials' performance. More than 95% of composites are made from raw materials and resins that are unsustainable.
To answer these challenges, we need to accelerate our capabilities in recycling our composites, extracting the maximum potential from every strand of high performance fibre.
We are bringing together industry, researchers and our team of specialists to address major challenges to composites recycling and re-use through the Sustainable Composites partnership. By acting now, we will open up new opportunites for the UK supply chain in a global end-of-life composite components market expected to be in excess of £2bn per annum.
Whether you're a business striving for Net Zero, seeking to reduce your product's environmental footprint for market competitiveness, or looking to minimise your energy usage, our Sustainability Transformation Service merges sustainability expertise with leading engineering capabilities to support your sustainability goals.
Sustainable Composites is a partnership between the NCC and CPI to promote and deliver the sustainable use of composite materials. Our aim is to accelerate the development of net zero impact composites, processes and technologies, bringing together the UK’s composites expertise to quickly turn research breakthroughs into industrial applications.
The SusWIND programme is investigating and demonstrating viable ways to recycle composite wind turbine blades, exploring the use of sustainable materials and processes for composite blades, and reimagining designs to future-proof the next generation of turbine blades.
The NCC and Motivation have collaborated to design and manufacture a wheelchair seat pan concept made entirely from sustainable, composite materials that are not only better for the environment but also deliver a product that could significantly improve the quality of life for disabled people in developing countries.
The NCC and Suilven RDE Ltd, an automotive design SME worked together to explore the use of natural fibre composites in their car body panels. Project SALSA looked into the likely environmental savings that could be made, as well as the impact on the performance of the car.
A follow-on project to assess composite material solutions that incorporate natural fibres and both bio-derived and biodegradable resin systems.
The University of Bristol and the National Composite Centre (NCC) are strengthening their partnership with the appointment of three leading figures from the composite materials sector, to help enable a net zero future for the UK.
The £17M Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST) was officially launched at its new base in the Carriage Works in Swindon on 19th November.
A report from Phase 1 of the BEIS-funded Joule Challenge Programme, delivered by NCC in collaboration with ORE Catapult is now available to download.
