Researchers have succeeded in recycling powdered aramid fibres using microwave radiation, according to a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The Closing Carbon Cycles with Renewable Amines (3CRA) consortium aims to explore how valuable amines can be extracted from biomass and recycled. ‘Amines are important building blocks for the chemical industry’, says Vincent Voet, lecturer in circular plastics at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. ‘They can be obtained from residual streams, but also from plastics and materials such as the aramid fibres in Twaron.’ Together with colleagues, Professor Katja Loos’ group at the University of Groningen and the company Teijin Aramid (which produces Twaron), they joined forces and pooled their expertise to see if the aramid fibres could be recycled in this way.