Is Oil Essential for Carbon Fibre?

Carbon fibre is an extremely strong yet lightweight material. That’s good news for material production, but raises environmental concerns as one of the main ingredients is oil. However, new research indicates that oil may not be essential after all. With a new and improved process, could carbon fibre lead to a greener future?

The good news

The biggest positive about carbon fibre is that it can make material lighter. And because it is stronger than steel, carbon fibre can be used to make everything from bicycles, to golf clubs and even wind turbine blades. This strong and lightweight alternative can also be used in vehicles and the lighter the car, the less fuel used. Clearly, this is good news for the environment. 

The bad news about carbon fibre

However, carbon fibre isn’t as eco-friendly as people would like to think. Researchers have figured out that the production is wasteful, and the end product is also difficult to recycle.

Carbon fibre is made from oil and a chemical called acrylonitrile. This chemical uses costly ingredients and an expensive catalyst. The use of petroleum within acrylonitrile also means the price of carbon fibre varies alongside the price of oil. Further analysis of petroleum-based products is available in the article ‘Selective Ionisation and Affordable High Resolution Mass Spectrometry is Revolutionising Molecular Characterisation in the Petroleum and Petrochemical Industries’

Even more bad news, is that the process of making carbon fibre also produces high levels of heat and creates a toxic by-product. And, although carbon fibre is a well-known car material, research from Jaguar Land Rover said it actually costs 20 times more than steel!

Is there an alternative?

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have developed a new way of producing carbon fibre – oil free. The new and improved process produces acrylonitrile using plants. By breaking down the materials into sugars, scientists were able to convert the plant based materials into a new catalyst for carbon fibre production.

A greener future

The scientists behind this plant based fix hope to produce massive quantities for testing in planes, trains and automobiles. If successful, this could decrease the cost of carbon fibre, which will help motorists lower their costs even more. So, less carbon pollution and ultimately a boost for the environment in the long term.