Life cycle assessment of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the techniques to assess environmental aspects associated with a product or process by identifying energy, materials, and emissions over its life cycle. The energy analysis includes all stages of a life cycle of an end product including the stages of resource extraction, manufacturing of materials, use, and its final disposal. Generally, carbon fiber needs high energy during the manufacturing process. However, carbon fiber composites show outstanding mechanical properties compared with other engineering materials such as metals and others. The use of carbon fiber enables weight reduction and leads directly to improved fuel saving and contributes to reducing CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission especially in the transportation sector. In this chapter, the examples of LCA on aircraft and automobile are introduced.