On August 20th, the University of Kentucky Applied Energy Research Center (UK CAER; Lexington, Kentucky) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Oak Ridge, Tennessee, US) are collaborating on a cost-intensive A $10 million project to convert coal into high-value carbon fiber and composite materials. The project is funded by the Office of Fossil Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The cooperation between the two organizations will enable the two organizations to exert their greatest expertise in this field.
According to UK CAER, the project is called "C4WARD: Coal Conversion of Carbon Fiber and Composite Materials", which aims to develop the necessary foundation and conversion science and engineering technology to create an energy-saving and efficient process to manufacture carbon fiber with adjustable characteristics. It will solve the challenges related to coal processing, the variability of coal raw materials, and the scale of carbon fiber production (from laboratory to semi-production scale).
The university pointed out that coal-based carbon fiber research shows great prospects and is expected to have a positive impact on the weak coal industry in the United States. It is said that in 2019, US coal production, consumption and employment reached the lowest level in 40 years. UK CAER stated that these trends may continue as coal continues to lose market share of natural gas and renewable energy generation in the power industry. Recent studies have shown that the coal utilization potential of the United States using coal for product production may reach the same order of magnitude as thermal coal.
The university also said that the carbon fiber market will continue to grow, driven by aerospace and defense applications and automotive lightweighting. New market growth in other high-volume applications (for example, insulation materials for buildings and materials used in construction and infrastructure) also shows broad prospects. By 2024, the carbon fiber market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12%.
CAER's Materials Technology Group will lead the work of converting various coal raw materials into carbon fiber and composite materials under the guidance of Director Rodney Andrews and Deputy Director Matt Weisenberger. British CAER said that this is the location of the largest carbon fiber spinning facility among all academic institutions in North America. CAER said it will cooperate with ORNL to optimize the coal-based asphalt processing process to develop carbon fiber and composite materials. CAER will produce laboratory-scale carbon fibers to develop the structure-performance relationship between the feed coal material and the resulting carbon fiber, thereby developing the processing-structure-performance relationship.
The university stated that ORNL will lead the work in the material characterization, techno-economic analysis, and technology-to-market parts of the project. More specifically, ORNL will use its expertise in chemistry and high-performance computing to correlate the molecular structure of coal with its processability and determine the best pitch composition to make carbon fibers with adjustable properties.
In addition, CAER and ORNL will also jointly develop process conditions at ORNL's Carbon Fiber Technology Facility (CFTF) to expand fiber production, which is the only carbon fiber innovation user facility designated by the US Department of Energy. According to reports, CFTF is a 42,000-square-foot factory that provides a platform for identifying high-potential, low-cost raw materials including textiles, lignin, polymers and hydrocarbon-based precursors. Using CFTF, ORNL is developing the best mechanical properties of carbon fiber materials, with a focus on structural performance and process optimization.
It is said that the plant can also customize the unit operation configuration, with an annual production capacity of up to 25 tons, allowing the industry to verify the conversion of its carbon fiber precursors on a semi-production scale.
"Adding value to the economy of Kentucky and the United States has always been a hallmark of our research and promotion at the UK Applied Energy Research Center," Andrews said. "This coal-to-carbon fiber project allows us to continue this tradition in exciting new ways, and together with our partners at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is known worldwide for its innovation, discovery and technology transfer programs."