This certification allows Toray Carbon Fibers Europe to allocate and use biomass or recycled materials through the mass balance approach to produce and supply carbon fiber. As a result, Toray Carbon Fibers Europe now has the ability to reduce the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of its carbon fiber, prepreg, and other offerings and help its customers to enhance product Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) while contributing to building a circular economy.
The ISCC (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification) PLUS, a voluntary certification program, guarantees that the raw materials used are sourced from biomass or recycled materials. It also ensures that there is complete traceability at all stages of the manufacturing process of a product. The mass balance approach tracks the amount and sustainability characteristics of circular and bio-based materials used in the value chain and it is based on verifiable record. This scheme is open to several sectors such as the food, feed, chemicals, plastics, packaging and textile industries.
Toray Carbon Fibers Europe will start manufacturing carbon fiber derived from biomass and recycled raw materials by the end of 2023. In Japan, Toray’s Ehime Plant aims to obtain ISCC PLUS certification by March 2024 and begin producing fiber by the end of that year, while Toray Composite Materials America Inc’s the carbon fiber facility in Decatur, Alabama, USA also plans to obtain this certification in 2024.
With these three locations obtaining certification, the Toray Group intends to manufacture carbon fiber using biomass or recycled raw materials at plants in Japan, the United States, and Europe, ensuring stable supplies to customers around the world.
From the end of 2023, Toray will offer this carbon fiber for industrial applications such as automobiles and handheld devices where demand for materials to create sustainable products is particularly high. Other applications, such as aviation and sports, will be targeted at a later date.
