Scientists are making carbon fiber from plants instead of petroleum

❝Carbon fiber is made from a chemical called acrylonitrile. Currently, producers make acrylonitrile from oil, ammonia, oxygen and an expensive catalyst. The process produces a lot of heat and yields a toxic byproduct. And, because acrylonitrile is made from petroleum, the cost of carbon fiber tends to rise and fall with the price of oil.

“Acrylonitrile prices have witnessed large fluctuations in the past, which has in turn led to lower adoption rates for carbon fibers for making cars and planes lighter weight,” said Gregg Beckham, a group leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and coauthor of a recent paper detailing this research. “If you can stabilize the acrylonitrile price by providing a new feedstock from which to make acrylonitrile,” he said, adding, “we might be able to make carbon fiber cheaper.”

Beckham and a team of researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a new process for producing acrylonitrile that makes use of plants, namely the parts people can’t eat, such as corn stalks and wheat straw. Scientists broke these materials down into sugars, which were converted into an acid and combined with an inexpensive catalyst to produce acrlyonitrile. The process generated no excess heat and returned no toxic byproducts.❞
     —Jeremy Deaton

Tags: Jeremy Deaton + clipping + carbon fiber + plants + petroleum + acrylonitrile + wheat straw + corn stalks + oil + ammonia + oxygen + catalyst + toxic byproduct + Gregg Beckham + National Renewable Energy Laboratory