low cost carbon fiber for wind energy

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the US Department of Energy

Low Cost Carbon Fibersfor Wind Energy

Cliff Eberle

Technology Development ManagerCarbon and CompositesOak Ridge National Laboratory

Director, Materials and ProcessingIACMI – The Composites Institute

Presented at2016 Wind Turbine Blade WorkshopAlbuquerque NM8/30 – 9/1/2016

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ORNL Carbon Fiber R&D DriversKey Insight Consequence

CF is far too expensive & volatile for cost-sensitive industrialization

Alternative feedstocks & manufacturing processes needed

CF outperforms many high volume application requirements

Performance (but not quality) can be traded for cost reduction

CF will shift from specialty material to industrial material

Economies of scale & lean manufacturing practices are critical

We anticipate CF industry emphasis to shift from extreme performance, high cost, low volume to extreme volume, low cost, moderate performance

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Classes of Commercial Carbon Fibers

UHM Pitch CF

HM PAN CF

IM PAN CF

DOE Spec

85453530

Tensile Modulus, Msi

Tens

ile s

treng

th, k

si

Functional

15

150

Industrial

150

500

650

1000

SM & IM Pitch CF

YTS @ UTS

SM PAN CF

LCCF

Wind?

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Typical costs and properties of PAN CF

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Fibe

r ten

sile

stre

ngth

, GP

a

Fiber modulus, GPa0 100 200 300 400 500 600

~$80/lb$30−$40/lb$15−$20/lb

~$10/lb

DOE price target:$5−$7/lb

DOE-VT requirement

Strength: 1,720 MPa, Modulus: 172 GPa

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Key Barriers to CF Industrialization• Materials cost

– CF production cost– Market volatility– Supply chain not lean

• Scale• High-rate composites

manufacturing• Design tools• Proven

crashworthiness

• Sunk capital• Workforce

– Entrenched metals culture– Inadequate composites

training

• Standards• Repairability• Resin compatibility• Recycling• Innovative competition

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ORNL is addressing the highest cost components of carbon fiber production

• New precursors to replace specialty PAN, including PAN variants, polyolefin, pitch, and lignin

• Advances in heat treatment, including microwave and plasma technologies

• Acrylonitrile• Fiber spinning• Carbon yield

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ORNL has produced textile based IMCF with estimated cost reduction up to 50%

Lower cost precursor and higher heat treatment throughput

CF tensile properties ~ 40 Msi (270 Gpa) modulus and 400 ksi (2700 Mpa) strength

Estimated textile CF production costper modulus up to 50% lower than for conventional CF

Composites database generation underway for use in design, modeling and application development

The data generated will be appli-cable to high volume industries with energy applications

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Test material is NCF C-PLY™ / Epoxy

Materials appropriate for turbine blades

Huntsman resinsAraldite® LY 1568Aradur ® 3489 / Aradur ® 3492

Carbon fibersZoltekTM PX 35ORNL SM and IM textile CF

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NCF Composite Mechanicals

Not distributed in proceedings

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New Potential Wind Application

One section of the wind turbine blade mold manufactured on the BAAM-CI from 20% CF-ABS pellets

3D printed blade molds use commercial CF

Good application for chopped textile CF


Contrasts between Specialty and Textile Acrylic Fibers

Parameter SAF TAFPlant production capacity Order 10k tpy Order 100k tpyTypical filaments per tow 12k – 60k 100k – 1,000kTypical filament denier 0.7 – 1.5 1.5 – 3.0Typical filament shape Round Often not roundTypical package Spool, non-crimped Bale, crimpedCo-monomer Methyl acrylate Vinyl acetate (usually)

or methyl acrylateCo-monomer content 2% - 5% 7% - 13%Molecular weight >> 100k grams/mol Order 100k grams/molPolydispersity index < 3 > 3Relative purity 10 1


Carbon Fiber Cross Sections

Specialty acrylic fiber Textile acrylic fiber A2.5-3.5 x 5-8 micron CF

Textile acrylic fiber B2-4 x 8-11 micron CF

Textile acrylic fiber C3.7 – 5.5 micron CF dia

Textile acrylic fiber D3.5 – 5.5 micron CF dia

• How does fiber cross section affect performance in wind turbine blades?

• It may be possible to tailor cross section if it is useful

Primary ORNL precursor to date


ORNL is negotiating up to five licenses for textlle CF production process

• Establish a low cost carbon fiber industrial base in the United States

• Licensees able and committed to bring the technology to market

• Create jobs and economic opportunity in the United States

• Provide a return on taxpayer investment in this technology

Licensees can collaborate with ORNL to opti-mize their products, train staff and produce sample materials at ORNL facilities until their factories are commissioned


What about Pitch CF?

Pitch CF typically suffer from low

ultimate tensile strain and compressive

strength

J.G. Lavin, ‘High Performance Fibers’, Ed John Hearle, Chapter 5, Woodhead Publishing, 2001


Summary

• Wind energy and other emerging high volume, cost-sensitive markets are driving the development of new carbon fiber production technologies

• New developments in textile based CF may offer cost-performance attributes matching the needs of high volume industries

• Composites testing is underway with these new textile based CF – further tests are planned to evaluate applicability and/or tailorability to wind energy industry


Acknowledgements• ORNL R&D Team• Academic and industrial partners• DOE-EERE Advanced Manufacturing• DOE-EERE BioEnergy Technologies• DOE-EERE Fuel Cell Technologies• DOE-EERE Vehicle Technologies• DOE-EERE Wind Program• ORNL Laboratory Directed R&D Program• ORNL Program Management

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is operated by UT-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725


Questions?

Cliff [email protected]

865-661-4292

ORNL Carbon Fiber Technology Facility