PORT ANGELES — In what was described as a “major milestone” for the Composite Recycling Technology Center, the Port Angeles nonprofit has signed a memorandum of understanding with Toray Composites (America), Inc. to collaborate on carbon fiber recycling.
Toray Composites (America), or TCA, will provide a supply of carbon fiber scrap material to the composite center at William R. Fairchild International Airport.
The parties will work together to “enable technical and market developments for recycled products” under the terms of the memorandum.
“Today’s announcement represents a major milestone for the CRTC,” said Robert Larsen, Composite Recycling Technology Center CEO, in a news release.
Consistent supply
“It ensures a consistent supply of carbon fiber scrap for our recycling efforts that will create beneficial uses for this previously landfilled material that we will turn into new and innovative product applications,” he said.
“Our recycling efforts will create dozens of living wage jobs and reap additional economic, energy and environmental benefits.”
The Composite Recycling Technology Center, or CRTC, was founded last September to foster a recycling industry that turns carbon fiber scrap into stronger-than-steel, lightweight products such as solar panel frames, computer cases, ski poles and snowboards.
Diverted carbon fiber scrap also will be pressed into rolls to be sold to other manufacturers at the CRTC’s 25,000-square-foot building owned by the Port of Port Angeles.
Founded near Tacoma in 1992, TCA is a leading supplier of carbon fiber materials for aerospace, industrial and recreational customers.
“As the value of carbon fiber composites continues to transform transportation systems through light-weighting and increased efficiency, we have a responsibility to continually look at the full life cycle of our products,” said Timothy Kirk, vice president for sales and marketing at TCA.
Future developments
“We foresee future developments, new technologies and new markets with recycling; and we see great alignment with the CRTC’s mission and the broader needs of the carbon fiber materials life cycle.”
The CRTC start-up was spearheaded by the Port of Port Angeles, which pioneered the concept of composite recycling in Clallam County, officials said.
The building’s shell cost $1.5 million to construct in 2010-11 with mostly port and some city of Port Angeles funds.
To complete the dirt-floor building, the port obtained $4 million in grants from Clallam County, the state’s Clean Energy Fund and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
Gov. Jay Inslee and other dignitaries attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the composite center last September.
The facility is scheduled to open in August.
Peninsula College will occupy 5,000 square feet of the building for classrooms and lab space for its advanced manufacturing composite technology program.
Larsen is expected to deliver the CRTC’s first-quarter status report to Port of Port Angeles commissioners Monday, followed by four to six weeks of speaking engagements with business and community groups.
This summer, CRTC officials are expected to identify a consumer product that will be manufactured from recycled carbon fiber.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
