Carbon fiber already has a number of commercial applications such as vehicle bodies, wind turbines, and other industrial uses and would be more widely used if costs for the material could be reduced.
Polyolefins offer a low-cost alternative to the more expensive polyacrylonitrile (PAN) feedstock that accounts for about 90% of today’s carbon fiber. The materials and process being pursued under this award have the potential to reduce carbon fiber production costs by 20% and to reduce the total CO2 emitted in the manufacturing process by 50% by dramatically cutting the amount of energy required. The higher chemical yield of the polyolefin-based process is a large factor in the energy efficiency advantage: about 1.4 lb of polyolefin is needed to produce 1 lb of carbon fiber, versus 2 lb of PAN for the same yield.
The effort is one of 13 advanced manufacturing projects across the United States that were awarded $54 million in DOE funding. The projects are part of a strategy for promoting emerging technologies that create domestic manufacturing jobs and enhance the competitiveness of US companies in global markets while improving energy efficiency, reducing pollution, and boosting industrial productivity.
ORNL is home to the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility, an advanced carbon fiber scale-up facility for developing and demonstrating low-cost manufacturing processes that can be transferred to industry.