Scale-Up of Novel Low-Cost Carbon Fibers Leading to High-Volume Commercial Launch. Final Technical Report.

摘要

The project started in September, 2012 with the goal of scaling up from the existing laboratory scale process for producing carbon fiber (CF) from polyolefin (PO) based precursor fiber using a Dow proprietary sulfonation-desulfonation stabilization process. The award was used to develop a process that was capable of producing market development quantities of CF from PO precursor fiber at a rate of 4 kg/h of CF. The CF would target properties that met or exceeded the Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicles Technology (1) standard; i.e., 172 GPa modulus and 1.72 GPa strength at greater than or equal to 1% strain. The Dow proprietary process was capable of meeting and exceeding these targets properties. Project DE-EE0005760 resulted from a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Dow and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and DOE. In the first budget period, the main goal was to design a sulfonation-desulfonation market development plant capable of stabilizing PO precursor fiber at a rate of 5 kg/h using a sulfonation solution.