Phys.org  October 31, 2024 Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs, or composites) are increasingly replacing traditional manufacturing materials used in the automobile, aerospace, and energy sectors. With this shift, a team of researchers in the US (University of Southern California, University of Kansas) developed an end-of-life processes for CFRPs and demonstrated a strategy to upcycle pre- and postconsumer polystyrene-containing CFRPs, cross-linked with unsaturated polyesters or vinyl esters, to benzoic acid. The thermoset matrix was upgraded via biocatalysis utilizing an engineered strain of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, which gave access to valuable secondary metabolites in high yields. Reactions were engineered to […]