Development of a cost model for the production of carbon fibres

Abstract

Carbon fibre composites offer considerable potential for mass reduction in automotive applications. However, raw material cost is one of the major factors that constraints its extensive use in this mass market. Here we report a systematic study that presents the cost contributors by considering the entire process chain of the carbon fibre manufacturing. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the final cost of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor and carbon fibres were strongly influenced by tow size. It was observed that a prompt decrease in the precursor and carbon fibre cost per kg for tow sizes from 3k to 12k, later this decrement was gradual and almost became stable above 50k. Moreover, with an increase in tow size from 3k to 50k, the contribution of the precursor on the final carbon fibre cost decreased from 76.6% to 49.6%. On the other hand, the contribution of the other factors increased with increase in the tow size, for instance, labour (9.86%–17.78%), Energy (2.49%–6.48%) and Depreciation (6.11%–11.01%). Nevertheless, precursor holds the major share in determining the final price of the carbon fibres.

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Kilo-Watt Scale Hydrogen-Bromine Flow Battery System for Sustainable Energy Storage

“…Carbon papers are prepared by graphitizing/carbonizing polyacrylonitrile (PAN) at high temperature [25]. The raw material costs of PAN are $4/kg [26] which translates to a $0.47/m 2 area for the raw material costs of carbon paper (see SI 4.1 for the calculation). The majority of the high actual costs come from the high energy consumption for the carbonization step and because carbonization is still a batch process.…”

High Throughput Centrifugal Electrospinning of Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers for Carbon Fiber Nonwovens

“…To produce carbon precursor fibers, materials like rayon, pitch, or polyacrylonitrile (PAN) are subjected to a spinning process [14]. Whereas spinning of PAN-fibers with diameters on the micrometer scale can easily be facilitated by (dry jet) wet-spinning in a productive and scalable fashion [15,16], pushing the diameter into the sub-micrometer regime requires more sophisticated methods of fiber spinning. PAN-nanofibers are often produced by electrospinning [17].…”

New Design of Composite Structures Used in Automotive Engineering

“…Due to the high costs of obtaining carbon fibers used in various industries such as aerospace and automotive, the transition from metallic materials to carbon fiber-based composites is difficult. For this reason, polyacrylonitrile is used as a precursor for the manufacture of carbon fibers [10]. New solutions for the composite materials used in automotive engineering are presented in [11,12].…”