The latest development of carbon fiber production

The latest development of carbon fiber production technology in Europe

Introduction to carbon fiber

carbon fiber is an inorganic polymer fiber with a carbon content of more than 95%. It has excellent basic physical and chemical properties such as low density, high strength, high temperature resistance, high chemical stability, fatigue resistance, abrasion resistance and so on. It also has high vibration attenuation, good electrical and thermal conductivity, electromagnetic shielding performance and low coefficient of thermal expansion. These excellent properties make carbon fiber widely used in aerospace, rail transit, vehicle manufacturing, weapons and equipment, engineering machinery, infrastructure construction, marine engineering, petroleum engineering, wind energy, sporting goods and other fields

in the 1980s, the internal structure was relatively loose, and a number of commercial carbon fiber manufacturers emerged in Europe, which also made corresponding progress in technology. However, with the development and competition of carbon fiber market, there are no carbon fiber manufacturers in Europe in the early stage. At present, the supply of carbon fiber in Hainan is concentrated in Asia, accounting for more than 40% of the global production capacity, while the production capacity in Europe accounts for between 25% and 30%, which is similar to that in North America. Among the top 5 carbon fiber suppliers in Zhuhai in 2015, three are from Japan (Toray, Teijin and Mitsubishi), One is from Germany {SGL), and the other is from Taiwan (Formosa Plastics), of which German SGL accounts for about 7% [1]. In fact, ~ part of the carbon fiber production capacity in Europe is provided by the subsidiaries or production bases of major multinational groups in Europe.

Germany Sigri group (SGL gro builds the "fluorite hydrofluoric acid fine fluorochemicals fluoropolymer" industrial chain up - the carbon company) Headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, it is one of the leading manufacturers of carbon graphite materials and related products. It has a complete business chain from carbon graphite products to carbon fiber and composite materials. It is currently the world's top 5 carbon fiber suppliers, with production capacity accounting for 10% in 2014 (red 2015). 2 there is no dead point limit to the swing angle; Adopt high speed ratio turbine reducer to change speed, which was 7% in 2015 (Huatai Securities Research Institute)

European enterprise trends

SGL (Germany)

sgl continuous carbon fiber typical product legend

sgl has production bases in Germany, Japan (Dazhu), Portugal (lavardio), Britain (Muir of ORD) and the United States (Moses Lake, WA and Evanston, WY) to produce carbon fibers and precursors. At the same time, SGL also focuses on the application, R & D and promotion of carbon fiber downstream products, especially its cooperation with the automotive market has ensured its market share of carbon fiber. In terms of downstream product research and development, SGL invested in the establishment of a carbon composite research center at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, to carry out systematic research on carbon fiber composites from the aspects of processing, molding, simulation and testing. In terms of cooperation with downstream markets, SGL has maintained a good cooperative relationship with the European automotive industry, and jointly expanded its carbon fiber production capacity (Moses Lake, WA) in the United States with BMW in 2014. After increasing production, its total carbon fiber production capacity can reach 90million tons per year

Table 1 performance list of typical SGL continuous carbon fiber products

Figure 1 production process of typical SGL continuous carbon fiber products

Turkey Aksa company

Turkey Aksa company was founded in 1968 and is the largest acrylonitrile fiber manufacturer in the world. In 2012, Aksa and Dow established a joint venture company dowaksa, forming a large-scale, full-service carbon fiber supplier composed of Turkish base and American base. Its products are used in transportation, infrastructure and energy fields to improve product performance and reduce overall costs

Table 2 performance list of aksacatm continuous carbon fiber products

Russian alabuga Fiber Company

alabuga fiber company plans to establish two production lines, the first of which is worth 2.5 billion rubles, and the total cost of the project is 4.2 billion rubles

in 2015, alabuga fiber's production line will produce 1700 metric tons, which will eventually increase to about 2000 metric tons. The new plant site is located in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Russia will have an output of 10000 metric tons or more, making it the largest carbonization equipment in the world. The production line is suitable for large carbon fiber applications, such as automobiles and wind energy

European bases of carbon fiber manufacturers in other regions

Table 3 lists the subsidiaries or production bases of the world's major carbon fiber manufacturers in Europe, and this layout is compatible with the carbon fiber demand in Europe

European base of carbon fiber enterprises in other regions

Solvay group in Belgium

Solvay group logo

this Belgian chemical giant acquired Cytec, an American carbon fiber company, in 2015, and focused on entering the carbon fiber Market based in the United States

on August 24, 2016, Solvay established a new carbon fiber production line in South Carolina, the United States, which will double the company's carbon fiber production capacity and mainly supply lightweight composite applications in the aerospace field. This expansion of the production line includes a full set of equipment and facilities for converting and polymerizing acrylonitrile monomers into standard modulus carbon fibers. This type of fiber is mainly used to manufacture composite prepregs for commercial or military aircraft parts. The new production line has obtained the production qualification of Boeing's secondary structural parts, such as engine compartment, wing flap and interior parts. Jean Pierre clamadieu, CEO of Solvay, said: "Through this strategic capital expansion, we will provide our customers with greater capacity to meet their growing demand for reinforced composites, help customers achieve the purpose of lightweight and energy consumption reduction, and reduce installation costs by providing integrated parts. For Solvay, this expansion brings greater flexibility, promotes our growth in the emerging composite field, and maintains our leading position in this field 。”

ELG carbon fiber company in the UK

ELG carbon fiber in the UK is an emerging technology enterprise providing the production of recycled carbon fiber materials. It was established in 2011 and quickly became an industry pioneer. Its headquarters are located in West Midlands, UK. In the first half of this year, the company participated in various academic conferences to demonstrate its product technology of recycling carbon fiber materials for many times, and announced in July 2016 that it would join the American Institute for advanced composite manufacturing innovation (iacmi) for a period of five years. ELG promised to open factories in the United States within this cycle. At the automotive composites exhibition held in the United States on September 7, 2016, the managing director of ELG announced that the company plans to open a new factory in Germany and the United States within three years. EGL currently has a plant in western England and is preparing to build a German plant, which is expected to be put into operation in 2018. At the same time, it plans to build a plant in the United States, which is expected to be completed in 2019

EGL carbon fiber recycling process

EU policies and projects

policy

1 nmp 2013.2.. Development of new process path of carbon fiber precursor and its functionalization (~ 24m €)

proposal No.: fp7-nmp-2013-large-7

funding plan: (cp-ip) fp7-nmp-2013-large-7 large

related projects:

fiberspec project: the improved innovative process will play a leading role in the fiberspec project and realize the continuous experimental production of PAN based carbon fibers

newspec project: aims to produce carbon fiber through low-cost sustainable PE precursor. PE mainly comes from bioethanol, synthetic oil and renewable plastics. The main contribution of the project is to use experimental facilities to allow the design to optimize the continuous carbon fiber process for subsequent mass production

carboprec project: the strategic goal of the project is to develop low-cost precursors from renewable materials widely existing in Europe and produce high-performance carbon fibers through carbon nanotubes reinforcement

2 NMP-..

lightweight high-performance composites (~22m €)

proposal No.: fp7-nmp-2009-large-3

funding plan: cp-ip - large scale integration project

related projects:

m-rect: multi-scale reinforced semi crystalline thermoplastic sheets and honeycomb materials

fire-resist: develop new flame retardant high-performance composites

hivocomp: lightweight structural composites with advanced materials to ensure high-throughput road transportation applications

3 MG-2.. Development, production and use of

high performance lightweight materials for marine equipment

release date: October 14, 2015

Project []

European academia's research on carbon fiber is more focused on its downstream technology, but some projects launched by the EU involve an important part of the carbon fiber production process focused on in this survey: the production of precursors. The major items involved are: nmp 2013.2. – Develop new precursors, new process routes and functionalization of carbon fibers

the major project has three sub projects: new cost-effective and sustainable polycarbonyl carbon fibers for large-scale market applications, the development of cost-effective and specific functional innovative carbon fibers through new precursors, and renewable energy nanostructure precursors for carbon fibers []

1 new cost-effective and sustainable hexenyl carbon fiber (newspec) for large-scale market applications

start and end date: November 2013 10.31

total investment: Euro

EU contribution: Euro

coordinator: Italy

proposal No.: fp7-nmp-2013-large-7

funding plan: cp-ip - large scale integration project

Project Objective:

the project aims to produce carbon fiber (CFS) from non laboratory promising low-cost sustainable polyethylene (PE) precursors. PE can be obtained from three different sources: bioethanol, synthetic oil and recycled plastics. Heye uses pilot plant (HPFC) to design and optimize the continuous carbon fiber production process, which can be easily industrialized in the later stage

in order to stabilize PE, the project proposes to use an original dry oxidation method, assisted by electron beam curing (EBC), and introduce heteroatoms in the precursor stage to achieve the purpose. This new method has advantages in technology, economy and ecology, and can ensure the innovation and flexibility of the development of new carbon fibers. The project plans to reduce the graphitization temperature by using nucleating agents such as cellulose nanocrystals, carbon nanotubes and fine graphite powder. The participating units will try to use atmospheric pressure plasma technology, room temperature grafting and specific surface attacking chemicals to explore the possibility of surface modification. The project will install non-destructive laser Raman probes in pilot facilities to provide real-time data for the development of multiple limit mechanisms during processing and production. To ensure the overall environmental and economic sustainability, LCA and LCC will be implemented at all stages of the project

the project has gathered the best expert resources in Europe to develop PE based carbon fiber to make it a mature technology with image and text interpretation of alarm prompt that is to solve the alarm device, including carbon fiber development experts and industrial end users focusing on the target market. More than half of the participants are European SMEs

coordination unit: Italy Freni Brembo spa

newspec project

participating unit:

Germany de