Economic and environmental effects of precursor variation in a continuous carbon fibre manufacturing process

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Commercial carbon fibre manufacture is a proprietary process which has resulted in limited informationbeing publicly available in regard to the processing of different materials and their impact on material,environmental and economic characteristics. This study investigates the relationship between differentprecursor materials and these parameters through an in-depth analysis of process structures, materialproperties, incurred emissions, energy demand and cost composition. This study compares three importantprecursor types for carbon fibre manufacture including ecological and economical aspects. Two ofthe precursors are polyacrylonitrile based, a special carbon fibre and textile grade, while the third is a sustainablyderived lignin-cellulose blend. The lower cost textile precursor has significantly higher processingcost than the specialized material while also incurring a higher amount of emissions. Indeed, up to270% more compared to the special grade precursor. The analysis of the lignin-cellulose blend precursorillustrates its shortcomings, especially with respect to processability and properties, despite its lowerenvironmental impact and up to 25% cost advantage. This study suggests pathways for the industrial processingof alternative precursors outlining their economic and ecological benefits and highlighting areasof necessary improvement such as material properties and energy demand.