Nova Carbon, CMP Composites partner for closed-loop carbon fiber recycling

Nova Carbon (Mérignac, France), a startup developing a textile-based approach to carbon fiber recycling, has announced a partnership with CMP Composites (Eysines, France), a regional composites manufacturer, to collect and recycle CMP’s production offcuts on a recurring basis.

The arrangement marks a new phase in Nova Carbon’s commercial development and has already yielded a first application: The manufacture of small offshore wind turbine blades incorporating Nova Carbon recycled and realigned long carbon fibers (rCF).

CMP Composites has doubled its revenue each year for the past 5 years. The partnership is intended to reduce CMP’s waste streams while improving the environmental footprint of its operations by keeping production scrap in circulation rather than diverting it to landfill or lower-value disposal.

The wind turbine blade project represents the first use of Nova Carbon material in this application category. While the end customer has not been disclosed, Nova Carbon describes the effort as a fully realized industrial project rather than a concept or prototype. Marc Augustin, general director of CMP Composites, describes the shared direction between the two companies in the video below.

“Our companies share a common ambition: keeping valuable carbon fiber in circulation and transforming end-of-life materials into high-performance applications,” says Hugo Cartron, co-founder and president of Nova Carbon. “This collaboration demonstrates what becomes possible when advanced materials innovation meets composites manufacturing expertise.”

Nova Carbon says its recycling process differs from conventional mechanical recycling approaches, which typically shorten fiber length and degrade mechanical properties. Rather, the company’s textile-based method preserves tow structure and fiber length through a process of realignment and controlled reshaping, reconstituting fiber tows into a technical textile intended for high value-added applications. The company offers its material in several intermediate formats — including noncrimp fabrics, dry tapes and raw fibers — compatible with infusion, prepreg and thermoforming processes.