FUY: Recycling Carbon Fiber from Composite Waste

Recycled Materials | Recycling carbon fiber from composite waste

Carbon fiber — seven to nine times the strength of steel at a quarter of the weight — is used from aerospace and new-energy vehicles to 3C electronics and 3D printing. But when these components retire, most go to landfill or incinerators; the global recovery rate for carbon fiber composites is close to negligible.

Two problems block recycling. Interface bonding: after high-temperature pyrolysis the recovered fiber surface is as smooth as glass, loses its grip, and separates easily in new resin, reducing strength. Feed blockage: recycled carbon fiber is fluffy and tangled, will not feed smoothly into production machinery, and repeatedly jams. Together they make both product and process fail — a problem that has stalled researchers at home and abroad.

Nantong Fuyuan Carbon Fiber Recycling Co., Ltd. (FUY/南通复源), founded in 2017 in Nantong High-tech Zone, commercialized the technology of Professor Yang Bin of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. It focuses on one task: turning carbon fiber composite waste back into usable carbon fiber.

A form change that solved problems

After repeated attempts, the FUY team reshaped recycled carbon fiber into uniform, rice-grain-shaped pellets. Blockage was solved — the pellets feed as smoothly as virgin material, production efficiency rose sharply, and dispersion time in resin fell. FUY states the process cuts carbon emissions by 85%, solving blockage, dispersion, and low-carbon performance at once.

Products

• Short-cut recycled carbon fiber pellets: made from FUY's own pyrolytically recovered carbon fiber through resizing, short cutting, and high-densification pelletizing. Low-carbon, smooth-feeding, well-dispersing, reinforcing, and conductive; used to raise stiffness, strength, wear resistance, and static protection.
• Pure-carbon recycled carbon fiber nonwoven felt: made by a nonwoven process; areal density 100–1,000 gsm, customizable width. Suited to fast compression molding and to carbon fiber SMC thermoset prepreg and carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites.
• Recycled carbon fiber surface veil: for high-performance composite surface layers, completing a recovery–regeneration–upcycling closed loop.

Scale and market position

FUY states its annual sales of recycled carbon fiber products account for more than 90% of the global market, from a team of 33 people. Products go to more than ten large manufacturers including DJI, Tesla, and Lenovo.

FUY also states more than 80% of the carbon fiber used in China's 3D printing consumables comes from the company, and it expects to supply 150 tons of recycled carbon fiber material to the 3D printing industry in 2026.

Standards and certifications

FUY participated in drafting two group standards — carbon-emission accounting for waste wind blade recycling and utilization, and for waste carbon fiber composite recycling and utilization.

The company has received certifications include ISO 14067 product carbon footprint, GRS 4.0 (TÜV Rheinland), and the three ISO management systems. In 2025 it was approved as a Jiangsu provincial specialized and niche enterprise; it is also a national-level high-tech enterprise.

About the exhibitor

Nantong Fuyuan Carbon Fiber Recycling Co., Ltd. is a leader in carbon fiber recycling, providing green solid-waste treatment and carbon fiber recovery and reuse services across the carbon fiber composite industry chain.

Booth: B1B61

At-a-glance

FUY | Recycled Materials | Recycling carbon fiber from composite waste