March 10, 2025 14:54
An agreement between multiutility services provider Herambiente (Hera Group) and Angeloni Group (Michelin) for the closed-loop recovery and recycling of post-industrial carbon fiber in Italy was announced at JEC World 2025 in Paris.
As part of the partnership, Hera Group’s subsidiary Herambiente will provide Angeloni with access to its new carbon fiber recycling facility in Imola, Bologna—the first of its kind in Italy—currently in the startup phase.
The company will collect composite production waste containing carbon fiber from customers in the automotive, marine and sports equipment industries, process the material to regenerate the fiber, and supply it back to Angeloni Group’s three Italian plants. The regenerated fiber will then be reincorporated into composite materials and returned to the same industries, closing the loop on production waste.
At the Imola facility (pictured), pre-preg scraps, cured waste and finishing residues undergo pyrolysis followed by gasification (pyrogasification). The process removes resins and additives used during molding and forming, leaving behind clean, reusable carbon fiber. The reclaimed fiber can then be rewoven and impregnated for use in autoclave processing, press molding or traditional composite molding techniques.
According to Herambiente, in the initial phase, the regenerated fiber will be used as a filler for nonstructural components and in mold production. However, several Angeloni Group customers, in close collaboration with the supplier, have already started tests on recycled carbon fibers to validate their specific mechanical characteristics.
These results are then useful for homologation of the materials in relation to the reference standards of each sector and for the use of recycled carbon in components—such as those for cars or boats—that require mechanical performance such as strength or flexibility.
"This partnership is of great importance because it consolidates our carbon fiber recovery project, developed in recent years together with technological and university partners, and which will see its launch in the coming days with the inauguration of the Imola recycling plant," said Andrea Ramonda, Herambiente CEO. "Our model provides for very close collaboration with customers, both to accelerate research together in a pioneering area such as the recycling of composite materials and to create real closed-loop cycles that prevent the production of waste by making the most of all discarded materials. And it is precisely on these bases that the journey with Angeloni Group starts today."
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