Skip to main content

Plant-based Carbon Fiber Currently Undergoing Research

Researchers may soon be able to produce a cost-effective and more environmentally friendly carbon fiber based on plants.

Currently, carbon fiber is made from petroleum products. It is high strength and lightweight, and used in high-performance cars to help reduce weight and improve handling. Its value is known with more expected to be incorporated in cars, and other vehicles, but, there are issues with it as well.

For one, the petroleum aspect of the manufacturing process makes carbon fiber expensive. While it is now common to find the material in supercars, it’s less-common in everyday vehicles.

Carbon fiber is made from acrylonitrile, which is made of oil, ammonia, oxygen and an expensive catalyst. The heating in the production process creates a toxic byproduct. Since petroleum is involved, the price of carbon fiber tends to fluctuate with the price of oil.

Gregg Beckham, group leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is working on a new feedstock for the acrylonitrile. 

“If you can stabilize the acrylonitrile price by providing a new feedstock from which to make acrylonitrile, we might be able to make carbon fiber cheaper,” he said.

That new feedstock uses plants. Parts of the plants that people don’t consume, such as corn stalks, are broken down into sugars. They’re then converted into an acid and combined with a catalyst to produce the acrylonitrile. No toxic byproducts were made in the process.

The process isn’t currently scaled enough for automobile product, but scientists are working it on. Readily-available, inexpensive carbon fiber would make it easier for automakers to incorporate it into future vehicles. Those weight savings would benefit everything from the latest performance car to battery-electric vehicles that’ll soon be taking the automotive stage.

[source: Popular Science]

A version of this article first appeared on hybridcars.com

The post Plant-based Carbon Fiber Currently Undergoing Research appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2DBOmHv
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more