Bio-based carbon fiber - commercialization

ended

Our modern societies are built on the mobility of the individual. Travelling to and from work, trips for leisure and shopping, or journeys to holiday destinations are integral part of our lives. The most popular means of transportation today is the private car. In 2016, the global car production has surpassed the 70 million mark for the first time. Irrespective of whether and when the mobility of our society will shift to electric vehicles, solutions are needed to increase the fuel and energy efficiency of transportation to mitigate effects of climate change and account for the continuous depletion of fossil fuels. One key strategy is to reduce the weight of the vehicle by replacing metal components through lightweight carbon fiber reinforced composite (CFRC) elements which offer significant weight reduction while maintaining the strength and safety properties. Carbon fibers are still predominantly produced from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor filaments and remain an expensive commodity, which has impeded is widespread use in the automotive sector. The ERC StG project” Unlocking the Entire Wood Matrix for the Next Generation of Carbon Fibers (WoCaFi)” allowed to develop the foundation to turn wood in its entirety into high-quality continuous filaments, which can be converted into low-cost bio-based carbon fibers. With the technology at hand, mild pre-treatment is sufficient to render the wood matrix soluble and spinnable, and converted the entire lignocellulosic scaffold into filaments. This will lower the raw material expenses significantly, which is directly translated to the costs of the precursor filament. Further savings are anticipated in the pyrolysis step. Reducing the energy-input in the carbonization protocol would reduce the costs even further. BIO-CC aims at assessing the technical feasibility and scalability of this process and to evaluate the market potential of this wood-based carbon fibers.