Can You Make Carbon Fiber from Coal?

1. Can You Make Carbon Fiber from Coal? What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word 'coal'? Maybe you remember when your grandparents used to burn coal in the furnace. This time of year, perhaps you think of Santa Claus leaving a black lumpy mess in your stocking. What would you say about the prospect of making carbon fiber from coal? Is it even possible? Absolutely. Coal is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Get rid of the hydrogen and oxygen and you can use the remaining carbon to produce the precursor chemicals necessary to create carbon fibers. The trick is doing it efficiently and cost-effectively. Two companies – one in Wyoming and the other in Washington state – are teaming up to do just that. The Basic Concept Current carbon fiber manufacturing relies on a high heat process that utilizes polyacrylonitrile to create carbon fiber precursor chemicals. The process works effectively enough, but it requires a ton of energy. The amount of energy required is the number one factor that contributes to the high cost of virgin carbon fiber. TerraPower and Ramaco Carbon – the two companies working on the new process – think they can do the same thing with coal and nuclear. The two companies have access to $1 million in federal funding for their project. They are perfect partners for this endeavor, given their individual missions. TerraPower is all about harnessing the power from nuclear reactions to do things other than driving steam turbines. As for Ramaco Carbon, their primary mission is to add value to coal by finding ways to use it other than burning. Carbon Fiber and Nuclear Power Scientists from both companies believe they can develop a safe, reliable, and cheap nuclear process capable of transforming coal into precursor chemicals for virgin carbon fiber production. They say that the initial stages of their project will rely on currently available renewable energy sources. But to scale things up, they will eventually have to go nuclear. Before you panic, TerraPower is already developing safer nuclear processes. By investigating ideas like traveling wave and molten chloride fast reactors, they are confident they can come up with a process far safer and cheaper than current nuclear technologies.

2. The Result Let us assume the project achieves the partners' stated goals. Then what? What will it mean for nuclear power and carbon fiber manufacturing? Actually, a lot. Should they succeed in coming up with a safer and more efficient means of harnessing nuclear power, the applications of that process would obviously exceed carbon fiber manufacturing. It could also be used to generate heat and power. Depending on efficiency and capability, it could lead to completely eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels. Next up, success would mean finding other uses for coal. That is big, especially for coal-producing states that start getting nervous whenever politicians talk about getting rid of coal as a means of producing electricity. Coal producing states would not only have access to new markets, but the coal they produced would probably have more value on the open market as well. Finally, success would mean an emissions-free method of producing virgin carbon fiber. Harnessing nuclear power would also make virgin carbon fiber less expensive in the long run. That would make carbon fiber available to industries that now find it too expensive to consider as a primary manufacturing material. Yes, it is possible to make carbon fiber from coal. The trick is doing it cheaply and without generating a ton of emissions. But no worries. Some very smart minds are now working on it.