Commercial carbon fibre production began in 1970 in Japan. The Companies Toray, Toho Rayon (today Toho Tenax) and Mitsubishi produced the first commercial carbon fibres. But due to the small number of producers, carbon fibres were only available in small quantities and therefore were expensive.
Since the 1980s, however, products were being offered by European and American companies on the market, and therefore the price of such fibres decreased as there was an increased demand from the markets.
Over the years supply and demand has mainly been registered in Western Europe, the US and Japan. However, the Turkish carbon fibre producer Aksa and some Chinese companies have extended their supplies.
Carbon fibres are said to combine the advantages of excellent mechanical properties and low density. Thereby they offer a high potential for weight reduction and energy saving potential. The properties can be influenced by the choice of the raw material and the adjustment of the process conditions. Hence carbon fibres can be optimised for a wide area of applications.
Today’s carbon fibre production is mainly (90%) based on PAN as precursor material. PAN is produced by solution spinning. The process has high requirements to produce an ideal precursor. Hence the process is complex and expensive. Afterwards the precursor fibres pass through a two step thermal process (stabilisation and carbonisation). These processes are very energy-intensive. To make carbon fibres interesting for a wider range of applications (i.e automotive) prices (depending on the fibre specification between 30 and 35 € per kg) have to decrease.
Until 2015, the carbon fibre market is predicted to grow above average because of increased demand. The reason for this, among other things, is the increasing amount of carbon fibres being used in planes (e. g. Boeing 787 or Airbus A350). This is happening because the carbon fibres being used in planes are helping improve energy consumption due to the lower weight of the airbus. Also there is increasing demand in the automotive industry
Currently, the carbon fibre industry as well as research institutes are currently reporting strong activities. The three main areas of research are identified as:
• Improvement of process
• Improvement of fibre properties
• Improvement of production facilities
The improvement of manufacturing facilities and the reduction of the energy consumption is becoming ever more important because a majority of the costs has emerged here. Especially, companies which are represented only recently on the carbon fibre market, are catching up in this regard, in contrast to established companies.
Companies which have been active in the market for a long time have a wealth of knowledge because of their experience. This advantage is especially noticeable in the mechanical properties of the fibres. For example, Toray and Toho Tenax produce fibres with high E-modulus (HM) whereas most companies produce mainly high-strength carbon fibres (HT, IM).
At the moment, the carbon fibre producing companies can be separated in two categories. On the one hand there are the established producers that have been in the business for a long time. On the other hand there are a lot of companies that started to produce carbon fibres recently or intend to produce them in the near future.
Carbon fibre companies
Toray Industries is the largest carbon fibre producer. The Japanese company has production facilities in Japan, France and the US. Currently it plans to increase its production capacities until 2014/2015 by 6,000 tonnes per year. For this purpose new lines will be installed at the existing locations and a new production location will be founded in the Republic of Korea with an annual capacity of 2,200 tonnes.
Toho Tenax is a Japanese company that has been producing carbon fibres since 1971. Behind Toray it has the second largest market share. To secure this position it has focused its research activities on developing new products and opening up new application areas.
Recently it announced the development of the Tenax Net Shape Preform-Technology, which it says allows the direct fabrication of complex carbon fibre prefroms.
SGL Group – The carbon Company SE is a German producer of carbon products. It was founded through a merger between SIGRI GmbH and Great Lakes Carbon in 1992. Along the whole process chain SGL is probably the best positioned company in the market. SGL owns associated companies or holds investments in companies from each process step from precursor production to semi finished textile fabrics. The latest major activity by SGL (March 2012) was the majority takeover of Fisipe – Fibras Sinteticas de Portugal. Fisipe is a Portugese producer of PAN fibres.
Zoltek Companies is a carbon fibre producer, which is located in St. Louis (Missouri, US). Once it was a supporter and service company for the industry. But in 1988 it stepped into carbon fibre production through acquisitions.
In 1995 the Hungarian acrylic fibre producer Magyar Viscosa was bought by Zoltek. It then enlarged the company’s production capacities by a further acquisition of Cydsa which owns PAN production plants in Mexico.
Similar to the above described producers, Zoltek intends to expand the application fields for its fibres. For instance, it has just opened a prepreg operations and tech centre in St. Loius. Furthermore it has announced a co-operation with Magna International Inc. to speed up the application of carbon fibres in the automotive sector.
New carbon fibre producers
One example for a relatively new carbon fibre producer is the Turkish PAN fibre producer Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii. The company is the world leader in PAN fibre production (12.5 % market share). In 2009 it installed a carbon fibre production plant with an annual output of 1,700 tonnes.
Furthermore, it signed a joint venture agreement with the Dow Chemical Company in December 2011. The joint venture allows the development of carbon fibres and adjusted chemicals for the use in composites. Aksa offers carbon fibres with a maximum tensile strength of 4.2 GPa. A new fibre type (A49) is under development and should achieve a maximum tensile strength of 4.9 GPa.
Another new carbon fibre producer comes from India. Kemrock Industries and Exports Limited was founded in 1981 and is a producer of glass fibres and reinforced plastics. In 2010 it installed the first carbon fibre production plant in India with a capacity of 400 tonnes per annum.
A lot of activities are now taking place in China. In 2006 the English PAN precursor company Courtaulds was bought by the National Bluestar group, which is owned by the Chinese state. Until that time Courtaulds was the only company that produced and offered PAN precursor on market. Hence Bluestar bought production facilities and also the knowledge about the precursor production process.
Today the Bluestar Fibres Company Limited offers PAN precursor fibres as well as carbon fibres. Beside Bluestar there are other companies in China that have started producing carbon fibres, for example Dalian Xinge Carbon Fiber (since 2009) and Zhongfu-Shenying Carbon Fiber.
Research institutes
One of the biggest research groups is the Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) (Tennessee, US). Its first research took place in the ‘Lightweighting Materials programme’ which was founded by the US Department of Energy (DoE).
In 2011 Oak Ridge established a carbon fibre consortium with 14 industrial partners (e. g. Toho Tenax America) to support ongoing research. A laboratory carbon fibre production line with an annual capacity of 25 tonnes will be available by the end of 2012.
One approach Oak Ridge has pursued is to decrease the prices for carbon fibres. Another research aims is to use low-cost polyethylene (PE) fibres as a feedstock material. The research team recently (March 2012) reported the successful conversion of PE to carbon fibres. But due to an ongoing patent application no process details are available yet.
Several research groups (i.e Kadla, BioMaterials Lab of the University of Columbia and ORNL) focus on alternative precursor materials, namely lignin. Lignin, along with cellulose and hemi-cellulose is an integral component of the wood cell wall and is considered to be the second most abundant biopolymer. The chemical structure of lignin polymer is a complex biological copolymer with a large amount of aromatic hydrocarbon structures, which is responsible for high carbon content. Recent studies demonstrated the high potential for cost-effective carbon fibres. Production costs are estimated with 4.50 €/kg. The maximum tension of these fibres is at the moment around 1 GPa.
Another research group is located in Geolong Australia. The Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre at Deakin University (ACFRF) focuses its research on PAN based carbon fibres (energy efficiency, modification), composite production and recycling. A carbon fibre pilot line from Despatch Industries with an annual capacity of 30 tonnes is under construction.
Several institutes in Germany are engaged in carbon fibre research as well. The Institut für Textilchemie- und Chemiefasern (ITCF) in Denkendorf covers the whole process chain from polymer synthesis to carbon fibres. In co-operation with SGL Carbon it operates a small furnace line for the thermal conversion of precursor fibres to carbon fibres.
Another big research group in the southern part of Germany was finally formed in the beginning of 2012. Initiated by the Carbon Composites e. V. (CCeV) over fifty research institutes and companies successfully applied for a government funded leading edge cluster (MAI Carbon). All involved partners are active in the area of carbon fibre reinforced plastics.
Another public funded carbon fibre project takes place in the western part of Germany. Members of RWTH Aachen University and industrial partners are working together in the MegaCarbon project, which is funded by the EU and the federal state government of Northrine Westphalia.
The aim of the project is the further development of the PAN-based carbon fibre production process. Three main potentials being considered in this project include: Higher precursor quality (through higher spinning speeds), improved stabilisation processes (through lower dwell times) and higher energy efficiency (through alternative heating methods).
Conclusion
The demand for carbon fibres has grown strongly in the past and forecasts predict that this growth will continue in the future.
Carbon fibres from new companies do not yet achieve the high mechanical properties of carbon fibres from established companies, but several research groups are active in the field of carbon fibre production.
Investigations are currently taking place in the area of alternative precursor materials (i.e lignin), the adaption of existing materials (PAN fibres for textile use) and modification of the existing process (energy efficiency).
The annual growth of production capacities will be driven by two main effects. The demand for carbon fibres with high mechanical properties will increase due to the higher amount of carbon fibres in aircrafts (i.e Boeing Dreamliner). And further market segments, mainly automotive, can be developed by a significant decrease in the production costs for carbon fibres.