What Is Missing From China'S Carbon Fiber Track?

High performance fiber is an indispensable strategic material in aviation, aerospace, national defense construction, economic construction and scientific and technological progress. It is also one of the core technologies of light weight in low-carbon economy.

In recent years, under the promotion of relevant national policies, China's carbon fiber industry has been developing rapidly, technology has been constantly optimized, production equipment has been continuously upgraded, and application fields have been expanding.

Recently, a high-end meeting of the carbon fiber industry - "the high level seminar on the development of carbon fiber industry technology and the annual carbon fiber conference of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association" held in Weihai, Shandong, in 2016, the delegates focused on the future development direction and emphasis of China's carbon fiber industry.

Global capacity continues to increase

In 2015, the effective production capacity of China's carbon fiber was about 15 thousand tons, and the annual output was about 3500 tons, a slight decrease over the previous year. Among them, 7 enterprises such as Weihai development, Zhongfu eagle, Jiangsu Heng Shen, Jilin carbon Valley, Fang Da Jiang City, Shanghai Petrochemical Company, Zhejiang Jinggong and other enterprises basically maintained stable production of more than 100 tons.

Looking at the world, the capacity of PAN based carbon fiber in the world reached 142 thousand tons (70% of small tow) in 2015. The top five enterprises were Dongli, Germany, Germany, SGL, MITSUBISHI and Zoltek, accounting for 60% of the total capacity of the world, of which Dongli accounted for about 18% of the total capacity.

With the extensive application of carbon fiber, the major international carbon fiber enterprises are continuing to increase their capacity.

Zhang Dingjin, chairman of China Composite Materials Group Co., Ltd. pointed out: "the group will invest 30 billion yen in the United States to build a new carbon fiber plant in South Carolina, which can be said to be the largest equipment investment in the group in the past ten years."

It is understood that the maximum annual production capacity of the new plant is 3000 tons, which will increase the annual production capacity of the group's carbon fiber by about 30%.

"Dongli also announced that it plans to invest 100 billion yen in 2020 and create a new and efficient carbon fiber production line in the US, with an annual output of 2000 tons.

MITSUBISHI has recently announced that it will invest additional equipment in its Dazhu undertakings to increase the annual production capacity of the large filament carbon fiber from the current 2700 tons to 3900 tons.

The new equipment is expected to be put into operation in the third quarter of 2017.

By 2017, the total capacity of MITSUBISHI Liyang will increase from 10100 tons to 13300 tons, an increase of about 30%. "

Zhang Dingjin introduced.

Strong demand in civil and industrial fields

Relevant data show that in 2015, the total consumption of PAN based carbon fibers in the world was about 60 thousand tons, and aviation, industry and sports / leisure three industries occupied 22%, 62% and 16% respectively.

"The industries with larger demand for carbon fiber include wind power, moulded plastics, pressure vessels and automobiles."

Zhang Dingjin predicts that by 2020, the demand for carbon fiber will reach 100 thousand tons, of which 72% will be applied to the automotive industry and the wind power industry.

At present, the number of motor vehicles in China is about 150 million, and 70% of the finished products are used for motor vehicle fuel. It is estimated that by 2025, the number of vehicles will be 300 million vehicles. The national energy development strategy is hard to meet this growth demand.

Lightweight technology is one of the most effective ways to reduce fuel consumption, reduce emissions and improve the mileage of electric vehicles. It is also one of the core technologies and core competitiveness of "made in China 2025", and high-performance fiber composites are the most effective engineering materials for lightweight technology.

Yu Muhuo, a professor at Donghua University, said that almost all auto companies around the world are developing carbon fiber vehicle. At the same time, parts enterprises, carbon fiber enterprises, resin matrix, composite materials and other enterprises are also developing carbon fiber vehicle parts.

"BMW i3&i8 is a typical example of the use of carbon fiber composites in light weight design of automobiles. At present, BMW can produce about 100 I3 and 10~20 I8 a day, and the manufacturing process saves 50% of electricity and 70% of water consumption compared with traditional vehicle manufacturing.

BMW I3 has been listed in Germany in 2013, and the order is far beyond the scheduled production capacity. BMW I3 is rapidly improving its production capacity. "

Zhang Dingjin said that the demand for carbon fiber in the automotive industry will continue to grow in the future. It is estimated that the global demand for carbon fiber in the automotive sector will be around 8600 tons in 2018 and 47 thousand tons by 2024.

In addition, Zhang Dingjin also analyzed the capacity, output and application of carbon fiber in 2015. "At present, the carbon fiber cloth in the construction field presents a downward trend of demand and price, and the demand for composite plate and prepreg increases gradually, and the demand for molded products is on the rise.

There will be broad prospects for future carbon fiber applications. "

Luo Yifeng, editor in chief of the national special synthetic fiber information center and editor in chief of hi-tech fiber and application, also pointed out that the R & D and industrialization of carbon fiber and carbon fiber composite materials have entered a significant innovation period. In the next 5~10 years, we will usher in the heyday of the great development.

At the same time, with the continuous decline of production costs and the development of low cost recycling technology, its market application will gradually become popular and become a new bulk product.

High efficiency, low cost development test domestic enterprises

Wang Yingchao, secretary and deputy general manager of the board of directors of Limited by Share Ltd, Weihai light and power composite material, said that although the domestic carbon fiber has solved the problem of "scratch from scratch", it is still at a low level. Compared with the United States, Japan and other countries, the technical level, manufacturing level and quality stability of the domestic carbon fiber still have a big gap.

Yu Muhuo believes that although lightweight technology brings great opportunities to the carbon fiber industry, we should see that there are still some bottlenecks in the development of China's carbon fiber and light weight vehicles, such as the lack of structural design, database and standard of carbon fiber vehicle and parts, as well as the high production cost of parts and the lack of upstream and downstream cooperation mechanisms.

"Terminal

In the cost accounting, the conclusion is that the cost is too high in accordance with the market price of the existing intermediates, which directly negates the plan for the use of carbon fiber components.

At this stage, the most important thing is that the carbon fiber industry should clearly tell the real cost of the scale of manufacturing industry, and do not use unreasonable quotes to scare away a large number of manufacturing industries that want to use carbon fiber. "

Yu Mu fire appeals.

At present, the international carbon fiber production enterprises are committed to developing low-cost production technology.

Yu Muhuo introduced that the oaks National Laboratory began to study the preparation of low cost carbon fiber in 2001, and the technology license was issued in 2016. The technology of "big tow acrylic fiber + microwave plasma carbonization" can reduce the cost by 50%. Japan's "PAN aromatization + microwave plasma carbonization" technology can increase the production efficiency by 10 times.

Zhang Dingjin also introduced the joint development of a new carbon fiber manufacturing technology by University of Tokyo, which combines the Japanese Industrial Technology Comprehensive Research Institute, Dongli, di Ren, Dong Bang Nike, and MITSUBISHI Liyang.

The technology eliminates the process of heating fibers in the air for a long time. Compared with the existing technologies, it can reduce the energy and carbon dioxide emissions required to produce carbon fibers by about half.

"The adoption of new technology can increase the maximum yield of carbon fiber produced by the current production line of 1000 tons per year by 9 times."

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It is gratifying to note that Donghua University is also developing new low-cost technology for carbon fiber production. Its "PAN aromatics + melt or dry spray wet spinning + rapid oxidation" technology has obtained 2 authorized patents in the United States, 5 authorized patents in Japan, and 3 inventions in China.

At present, the technology is in the pilot stage.

Luo Yifeng pointed out that polyacrylonitrile based carbon fibers represented by Japanese enterprises are developing in two directions: high performance, super efficiency, low cost and low energy consumption. The carbon fiber composites represented by the American oak garden National Laboratory manufacturing system research group are developing faster and more efficiently in the process of preparation, including the development of additional equipment, automated production lines, high-precision equipment or new molding methods, of which 3D printing composite materials are nearly practical.

"The innovation direction of the US and Japan carbon fiber represents the research and development goal of carbon fiber and its composite materials in the future. In addition, in order to meet the special needs of specific purposes, especially in the aerospace and defense fields, the domestic carbon fiber industry will continue to develop new resin systems and CFRP components embedded in grating sensing fibers."

Luo Yifeng proposed.

At present, there are about more than 30 carbon fiber enterprises in China, which are small in scale and can not compete with international leading enterprises with an annual output of 30 thousand tons.

Yu Muhuo believes that China is in urgent need of establishing large tow carbon fiber technology and its industrial chain, and supports the research and development of small tow carbon fiber and large wire bundle carbon fiber manufacturing technology, so as to promote the technological level of the overall industrial chain of carbon fiber by industrial application.

Yu Muhuo also suggested that a number of "demonstration projects of high performance fiber and lightweight industrial chain" should be established in the future to form a complete demonstration project for all links of the industrial chain with reasonable operating rate, continuous stable operation and reasonable corporate profits; to cultivate leading enterprises in the industry, to enhance the regulatory efficiency and to participate in international competition; to set up key scientific and technological projects of "high-performance fiber and lightweight", to increase scientific and technological tackling efforts; to establish a high technology fiber and lightweight technology technology and personnel training system; to formulate policies for the development of China's high-performance fiber and lightweight composite materials industry, and to optimize the development environment.

Carbon fiber concept stocks appear

The star effect of carbon fiber and the huge development space of the industry itself have attracted the attention of the capital market. The capital market has produced "carbon fiber concept stocks".

At present, some A share companies with carbon fiber concept, such as ho bio and Shen Da share, have already made use of the capital market platform to plan to raise carbon funds through non-public offering shares, and Heng Shen shares have completed two financing through the new third board market; the Jilin carbon Valley has also been listed in February this year.

At present, there are 9 listed companies in A share involving carbon fiber business, including China Aviation hi tech, Fangda carbon, Hua Xun ark and Shanghai petrochemical company.

At the same time, there are 3 new three board listed companies, including Heng Shen shares, Jilin carbon Valley and Hao Yuan new materials.

"The domestic carbon fiber industry has already taken the first step towards the capital market. Although there are no A companies listed on the basis of carbon fiber for the time being, there are already many companies listed on carbon fiber as an extension business."

Wang Yingchao introduced.

Wang Yingchao also pointed out: "we should learn from the industrial development experience of the global carbon fiber leading enterprises in Japan, Dongli, Hirsch and Germany SGL, and encourage carbon fiber manufacturing enterprises and downstream industries, such as well-known automobile and aviation enterprises, to establish a deep interest binding and cooperation mode including capital or tactics.

We also suggest that the relevant departments of the state carry out a new round of industrial support aimed at improving the industrialization technology of carbon fiber and improving the maturity of technology, so as to promote the production of domestic carbon fiber from "have" to "strong".

At the same time, relevant policies should be introduced to encourage carbon fiber enterprises to move towards the capital market and integrate the carbon fiber industry with the help of capital.

As long as we unite as one, the domestic carbon fiber will break through the bottleneck and usher in its poetry and distance. At present, almost all automobile companies in the world are developing carbon fiber vehicle.