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Toho Tenax Europe GmbH (TTE, Wuppertal, Germany) was nominated for the German Raw Materials Efficiency Award 2017 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for its concept "Closed Circle of Thermoplastic Composites." The BMWi annually honors outstanding examples of increased raw material efficiency in products, processes or services as well as application-oriented research results. The award ceremony took place in Berlin last month as part of the specialist conference "Using raw materials efficiently – successfully on the market".

"Recycling options will play a crucial role in selecting materials in the aviation industry in the future,” says Falk Ansorge, sales manager aerospace for Toho Tenax. “We are therefore working intensively on the holistic concept ‘Think ThermoPlastic’ in order to be able to meet the future expectations of the market from an ecological and economic point of view. Our nomination for the German Resource Efficiency Prize confirms our actions and our pioneering role.”

Toho Tenax's approach combines the cutting scrap in the form of “wet” thermoplastic carbon fiber fabric with recycled polyetheretherketone (PEEK), a high-performance thermoplastic polymer. The resulting recycled compound offers high properties with almost the same performance profile as a compound made from original materials. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis has shown that the environmental impact of this recycled product is only 34% compared to the original formulation and its price is 40-60% lower. These results represent an important step towards the recycling of composites, which is also imperative given the growing global demand for carbon fibers.