The carbon fiber industry is slowly starting up in China, and its application in civilian and industrial areas is gradually expanding. It is certain that carbon fiber applications have great potential in China! Xiangsheng Carbon Fiber has been specializing in the production of carbon fiber. In recent years, it has conducted in-depth analysis of China's carbon fiber industry and has come up with the following suggestions. We hope to help our friends!
The goal of the carbon fiber project is to achieve a carbon fiber production capacity of 12,000 tons by 2015, basically meeting the needs of aerospace, wind power generation, and transportation equipment. In addition to the military industry, the current domestic carbon fiber applications are mainly concentrated in thermal field insulation, brake pads, sports and recreation, and construction. In the future, the increase in carbon fiber consumption will mainly focus on wind turbine blades, high voltage transmission cable cores, and automotive.
According to reports, carbon fiber composite materials are used for key parts of wind turbine blades above 55 meters. Offshore wind power generation is all high-power. A rough estimate is that a group of blades needs to use carbon fiber composite materials several hundred to 1200 kilograms.
In terms of high-voltage transmission, carbon fiber is mainly used to produce carbon fiber composite cable cores, which can effectively reduce the current loss caused by the eddy currents generated by sagging transmission lines, and reduce the tower density and strength. At present, tens of thousands of kilometers of grid-connected experiments have been carried out. The effect is very high. Well, carbon fiber consumption is about 70 kg/km. It is reported that in the future, China will add 1 million kilometers of new transmission lines every year, and the aging transformation line will be about 200,000 kilometers. This number is still increasing.
In terms of automobiles, the automotive industry is facing serious challenges in terms of resources and the environment. Promoting vehicle weight reduction to reduce fuel consumption is the theme of the development of the automobile industry, and carbon fiber composite materials are ideal to use plastic-replaced steel materials.
Equipment is imperative
Due to the lack of technology, many carbon fiber installations in China appear to have “armpits”. The preparation process of carbon fiber is divided into multiple processes such as polymerization, spinning, pre-oxidation, carbonization, and surface treatment. Whether it is process technology or equipment development and supporting materials, as long as there is a process that cannot keep pace with the development and industrialization, carbon fiber will be affected. industry.
At present, only a few companies have achieved localization of the entire process, but the quality remains to be examined. The key equipment of most carbon fiber installations is still dependent on foreign countries. However, key equipment such as pre-oxidation furnaces, carbonization furnaces, etc., because foreign countries always "set up cards" for us and depend on foreign countries to face "embargo" risks at any time. Compared with foreign equipment, there are still gaps in the precision control of domestic equipment such as temperature and tension, resulting in increased product non-uniformity and difficulty in improving production efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to include these important research and development contents in the carbon fiber project, and it is imperative that these devices be tackled.
In addition, the development of key raw materials such as carbon fiber preparation oils and sizing agents is also necessary. These raw materials are currently still in the R&D stage in China and cannot meet production requirements.
Two ways to reduce costs
For the goal of cost reduction and innovation demonstration in the carbon fiber project, low cost is the key to improving the competitiveness and application of carbon fiber. Currently 12K carbon fiber products, the price of foreign products in 150 ~ 220 yuan / kg, domestic sales at this price is difficult to make money.
There are two suggestions for reducing costs. One is to increase production efficiency. With a production line of the same scale, China's hourly output is only 1/3 of that of foreign countries. The same input, the output is very different, the price is naturally difficult to reduce.
The second is raw material diversification. At present, most of the carbon fiber production raw materials that are commercialized in China are polyacrylonitrile-based (PAN) materials. The raw materials of acrylonitrile are dangerous products and the cost is relatively high. In the future, the development of asphalt bases, viscose bases, and lignin bases can be increased, and the cost can be reduced through the diversification of raw materials. At present, some companies have set foot in this field.
In addition, reducing energy consumption is also very critical. At present, the production of one ton of carbon fiber consumes 30,000 to 40,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The energy consumption data in foreign countries is not yet clear, but there should be potential to be tapped in this regard.
Product development professional
The development of carbon fiber should be focused on professionalism. Japan has already begun to phase out the T300, and it is meaningless for us to spend energy on low-end products. In addition, in the field of carbon fiber downstream applications, many process equipments are imported from abroad, such as wind blades, cable cores, and building reinforcements. The application requirements are relatively high, which also prompts us to go high.
At present, most of China's carbon fiber production enterprises are low-level redundant constructions, and the technology is not passable. Most of them still fail to reach the T300 level and cannot meet the requirements of high-tech products. Therefore, the sales are not smooth. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes, the development of emerging industries needs to be carried out in an orderly manner.
Development proposals
Break through the key technology bottleneck of PAN precursor
Among the many factors that restrict the development of carbon fiber in China, the backwardness of the PAN precursor level is a bottleneck restricting the improvement of the production level of carbon fiber. It not only affects the quality of carbon fiber, but also affects its output, production cost, and market competitiveness.
At present, it is urgent to master the production technology of high-performance PAN-based yarns and seize market opportunities. Under the premise of perfecting carbon fiber production technology, as soon as possible, breakthroughs will be made in PAN-based raw wire manufacturing technology, and high-quality upstream product production lines will be developed. Carbon fiber production will be stable and products will be excellent, thus breaking the foreign blockade and monopoly on key technologies.
Accelerate the promotion of independent innovation
At present, China's carbon fiber devices, such as spinning equipment and carbonization equipment, are basically quoted from Italy, the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. There is a big gap in the localization of equipment, and it is necessary to digest and absorb the technologies that have been mastered as soon as possible to effectively control the carbon fiber production process. Defects, breaking through the problems of unstable performance and high dispersion of domestic carbon fibers, greatly improved the performance and stability of PAN-based precursors and carbon fibers.
High-performance fiber is an important commanding point in the development of national material science, and is an important strategic basic material of the country. Its technological breakthroughs and industrial applications have important value for promoting social development, continuously improve the ability of independent innovation, and gradually break through the development of carbon fiber industrialization. Restrict the "bottleneck", increase the level of localization, and narrow the gap with the developed countries.
It is worth noting that carbon fiber is a high input, high risk, high energy consumption industry. The state's support should mainly focus on the establishment of a systematic research network for interconnection and avoid duplication of introductions and repeated studies. The state should support several successful companies, vigorously coordinate, optimize the layout, integrate resources, and cooperate to solve problems, prevent low-level redundant construction and blind development, and achieve the goal of allowing more enterprises to avoid detours and save costs.
Further deepening product structure adjustment
At present, the structure of carbon fiber products in China is relatively simple and lacks high-performance large tow products. Therefore, it is necessary to increase product structure adjustment and further develop T300 12K, 24K and T800 series products to form two series of T300 and T800, 1K and 3K. Six brands of 6K, 12K, 24K and 48K products enhance the strength of the horizontal development of China's carbon fiber industry. Therefore, in terms of component manufacturing, it is necessary to purchase foreign equipment properly and overcome the problems of localization of key equipment; actively cooperate with downstream units, strengthen the close integration of “production, learning, research, and use”, establish relevant mechanisms, and actively develop new processes and new products. application.
Efforts to focus on carbon fiber recycling
Carbon fiber products are used in special fields, and their service life and refresh cycle are strictly required. A large number of discarded carbon fiber products are in urgent need of treatment. According to Japan's Mitsubishi Rayon estimates, there are currently about 20,000 tons of discarded carbon fiber. With the expansion of carbon fiber production capacity and the extensive use of reinforced materials, the recycling of carbon fiber will become increasingly important.
In recent years, some foreign companies have begun to pay attention to research and development of environmentally friendly recyclable carbon fiber. Japan’s Toray, Teijin and Mitsubishi have already planned to jointly produce such carbon fiber on a large scale, with the recycling of high-strength, lightweight materials. China should also learn from foreign concepts and gradually incorporate carbon fiber recycling into its research and development.
       To put it simply, China's carbon fiber industry wants to achieve steady development. First of all, it must solve the problems of raw materials and equipment, and then seek new developments, deepen structural reforms, recycle energy, and develop China's own technological products! Of course, this is also a goal of Xiangsheng Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd.!