Development of a cost model for the production of carbon fibres

Srinivas Nunna; Patrick Blanchard; Derek Buckmaster; Sam Davis; Minoo Naebe

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02698

Development of a cost model for the production of carbon fibres

Heliyon. 2019 Oct 23;5(10):e02698. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02698. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Authors

Srinivas Nunna¹, Patrick Blanchard², Derek Buckmaster¹, Sam Davis², Minoo Naebe¹

Affiliations

¹ Carbon Nexus, Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria, 3216, Australia.
² Research and Product Development, Ford Motor Company, Snow Ave, Dearborn, MI, 48124, USA.

Abstract

Carbon fibre composites offer considerable potential for mass reduction in automotive applications. However, raw material cost is one of the major factors that constraints its extensive use in this mass market. Here we report a systematic study that presents the cost contributors by considering the entire process chain of the carbon fibre manufacturing. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the final cost of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor and carbon fibres were strongly influenced by tow size. It was observed that a prompt decrease in the precursor and carbon fibre cost per kg for tow sizes from 3k to 12k, later this decrement was gradual and almost became stable above 50k. Moreover, with an increase in tow size from 3k to 50k, the contribution of the precursor on the final carbon fibre cost decreased from 76.6% to 49.6%. On the other hand, the contribution of the other factors increased with increase in the tow size, for instance, labour (9.86%-17.78%), Energy (2.49%-6.48%) and Depreciation (6.11%-11.01%). Nevertheless, precursor holds the major share in determining the final price of the carbon fibres.

Keywords: Carbon fibre; Chemical engineering; Chemical reaction engineering; Chemical synthesis; Cost model; Energy economics; Mechanical engineering.