Carbon Fibre : Irish University Researching Cheaper and More Sustainable Carbon Fibre Production.
The University of Limerick posted that groundbreaking technology developed there could produce cheaper and more sustainable carbon fibre, which could lead to the cars of the future being manufactured from paper waste.
Researchers based at UL’s Bernal Institute have produced carbon fibre from sustainable bio-resources. These materials have been used to produce car wing mirrors and sections for wind turbine blades, paving the way towards a more sustainable future for materials used in the automotive and wind energy sectors.
With the global market for composite materials worth upwards of US$90 billion, UL is leading the way on the production of bio-based carbon fibre, which could signal the dawn of a new green industry for Ireland.
“Our team has converted organic waste from forestry into carbon fibres which have already shown enormous potential in terms of performance in automotive, aerospace and wind-turbine demonstrator tests,” explained Dr Maurice N Collins, a senior lecturer at UL’s school of engineering.
“Our technology drastically reduces energy usage and carbon emissions during production, as well as the cost of carbon fibres. This is particularly significant as carbon fibres are known for their high performance and their high cost. In the future we can expect higher performance goods at lower cost to the consumer,” added Dr Collins, principal investigator and coordinator on the research project being run out of UL’s Bernal Institute.
With Biorefineries popping up all around Europe, including in Ireland, to convert plant-matter or biomass to fuel, heat, power and chemicals, vast quantities of waste material called lignin are being produced as a result.
Between 40 and 50 million tons of lignin are produced worldwide per year and the state of the art technology developed at UL can produce material using conventional and newly developed energy efficient, dry and waste-free processing and pre-treatment techniques.
It means these lignin-rich waste streams are being converted to carbon fibre at UL using a production process that utilises less energy and produces a smaller carbon footprint.
“Our bio-based carbon fibres are being used to produce composite materials for application in the energy, aerospace, biomedical and automotive sectors, offering a high-end commercial route to valorising forestry waste,” explained Dr Collins.
Dr Mario Culebras Rubio, a researcher on the project and member of the Bernal Institute at UL, said that it has also “been very successful in exploring alternative uses of Lignin to produce carbon-based nanomaterials for energy harvesting and storage” and that it was a starting point for future research proposals.
The research that developed this new production process began with LIBRE, a project that aimed to free the composite industry of its reliance on oil-based production, funded by the European Union’s Biobased Industries Consortium under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.