The ERC Proof of Concept project BIO-CC (899436) has prepared the way towards the manufacturing scale-up of a new low-price category of carbon fibers (CFs) for a wide range of applications with property requirements in the mid-range, fully based on renewable resources and thus independent of oil price fluctuations. In addition, we produced insights into how such a technology could be positioned in today’s market, in order to ensure wide adoption.
Globally, the CF market size is projected to grow from €3.14 billion in 2020 to €7.55 billion by 2031, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6%. The industrial engineering applications of CFs can play a key role for instance in exploring the weight reduction for the construction of larger components (e.g. wind turbine rotor blades) or transportable components. The civil engineering applications could potentially substitute the corrodible steel concrete reinforcements. However, currently CFs are ten times more expensive than conventional reinforcing materials and this overcharge is mainly due either to the CF raw material cost, and/or to the production speed (minutes for steel, hours for CF). Carbon fibers are still predominantly produced from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor filaments and remain an expensive commodity. For this reason, CFRCs are mostly found in high-end applications such as space- and aircrafts or low-volume products like sports and leisure equipment, but could not penetrate markets requiring bulk amounts at considerably reduced costs. The automotive and construction sector could be opened up as extremely potent market if the CF price can be reduced. The main unmet need addressed by the project is that PAN-based CFs are still too expensive for the automotive sector, where their light weight-high strength properties could lead to fuel and energy savings for customers.
Our key proposition is a manufacturing process able to turn the entire wood scaffold, with minimum refinement, into continuous precursor filaments for low-cost CFs. The properties of our wood-based carbon fibers are shifting closer to those of steel, which was the target in BIO-CC. The limited access to continuous carbonization trials in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to seek new pathways. A collaboration with another European institutes was initiated and has shown very promising results which need to be further developed once the own carbonization line is in operation.
If successful, the development could lead to new, fully biobased high-volume products to reduce the energy consumption of vehicles or increase the lifetime of constructions. Besides the environmental aspect, our project has long-reaching benefits for society in general, as it advocates for reuse and recycling of materials that are by-products of other industries. This minimizes waste and creates new business opportunities that we plan to further explore.
