Carbon fiber has the potential to change industries around the world. Lighter cars, compressed gas storage and stiffer, more efficient wind turbines are examples of its many uses.
In the past, large-scale use of the product was stifled by cost and volume limitations. Not anymore.
Thanks to a recent breakthrough at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists have discovered how to produce the carbon using a low-cost input material — the same acrylic fiber found in carpets, socks and shirts — instead of carefully processed, more expensive specialty fiber.
The carbon is produced through a high-temperature process that converts acrylic fiber, stripping away material other than carbon. The new, low-cost process allows the carbon fiber, a strong material used for reinforcement in advanced composites, to be affordable for use in the automobile industry.
“The innovation is the use of a material that is really designed for commodity products in the same way we use specialty fiber that is more carefully processed and therefore much more expensive,” said Alan Liby, deputy director of the Advanced Manufacturing Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “That is part of the cost reduction, simply using a low-cost input material.”
Combined with a new capability to processing larger quantities per batch, the innovation will drastically cut the cost of carbon fiber, which previously sold for $10 per pound. Processing higher quantities of lower-cost material will reduce the price of the product by more than 50 percent, according to Liby.
The energy used to produce it will be lessened by around 60 percent, a boost for the environment.
The cost reduction will support carbon use in lightweight components for vehicles, which is the biggest target use, according to Liby. Gas storage vessels made from the fiber will hold a higher pressure, and therefore store more gas in a higher volume, important for eventual use in hydrogen-fueled and over-the-road vehicles.
“It can dramatically increase the use of carbon fiber-reinforced composites to replace heavier materials like steel, aluminum and fiberglass-reinforced composites,” Liby said. “All of those materials weigh more for a given purpose than carbon fiber-reinforced composite materials.”
The weight of a car potentially could be lessened to meet the fuel economy standards set for the future, according to Liby, who said meeting the government’s 54 miles-per-gallon target for light-duty vehicle fuel efficiency by 2025 is a huge challenge.
“The drive for energy efficiency is an important one to support what’s being referred to as the ‘clean energy economy,’ ” Liby said. “The entire world is engaged in this process, but competitively we don’t want to fall behind by not being on the forefront of this kind of technology.”
The carbon fiber industry is a portion of the focus of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, or IACMI-The Composites Institute, a White House-initiated public-private partnership between universities, governments and laboratories.
The group is working to benefit the country’s energy security through resource and investment sharing, with the goal of developing advanced composites. The partnership also has a heavy hand in training the workforce to meet employment opportunities that the field is quickly generating.
IACMI has an East Tennessee foundation. The national partnership is headquartered in Knoxville and has strong ties to Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.
“What we’re doing inside The Composites Institute is getting after energy reductions which ultimately will lead to cost reductions, and moving towards high-volume manufacturing with the automotive, compressed gas storage and wind,” IACMI CEO Dr. Craig Blue said.
This high-volume manufacturing lessens a problem with landfill impact, something that IACMI is in the process of improving. Around 29 million pounds of scrap are left in the country’s landfills every year.
In July, the Composite Recycling Technology Center, based in Port Angeles, Wash., was established as IACMI’s satellite partner. They will work together to accelerate the development of composite recycling technologies.
The CRTC is the first in the world to take carbon fiber scrap from landfills and create new products.
In addition, The Composites Institute and Toray Composites, Inc., launched a project designed to decrease carbon fiber structural car parts by 15 percent. The project will integrate materials and manufacturing methods to utilize waste stream, leading to a higher speed of manufacture and a greater recycling ability for car parts.
“A lot of people understand what you could do with carbon fiber if you get the cost right,” Blue said. “We’re seeing applications in a lot of different areas. I believe that you are going to see pretty significant things in the next two to five years.
“BMW is one of the first adopters and they’ve been quite open about everything they are doing. We’ve been through their facilities. They are using carbon fiber composites more and more throughout. If you look at cars over the last 20 years, they’re turning into plastic cars.”
Oil exploration is another industry that could benefit from cheaper carbon fiber. Because it is corrosion resistant, the carbon is an ideal material for deep-sea drilling equipment. The lightness of it makes pipes and other tooling easier to maneuver and use.
Strides in the composite industry are causing a wave of job creation. According to IACMI, more than 353,000 jobs have been created in the past five years. Between 2010 and 2015, employment in the composites field expanded almost 15 percent, and employer demand has doubled since 2010.
Diversity is prevalent in the world of composites. Nearly 15 percent of the workforce is non-white, and there are more workers over the age of 45 than under, according to IACMI.
The fast job creation is causing a gap in the composites-related workforce that is widening. With nearly 23 percent of workers in the industry due to retire in the next 10 years, and three jobs being posted for every one graduate in the field, it is important to find and train an appropriate workforce for the nation’s growing composites industry.
With that in mind, IACMI is focused on training a proper workforce. Engineers, scientists and mechanics will be needed for new composite and technological advances. In East Tennessee, IACMI is drawing the interest of high school and college students through training events.
Additional capabilities have been added to the IACMI Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Center at UT in the past year, adding square footage of composites manufacturing and opening the door for student training opportunities each semester.
“We’ve had a couple of different events. One of them we had over 100 attendees from 10 different area schools,” said Robin Pate, communications and workforce director for IACMI. “They were students with an interest in first robotics and also students with a general interest in manufacturing.”