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Carbon fiber cars could put U.S. on highway to efficiency
March 07, 2006Highways of tomorrow might be filled with lighter, cleaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles made in part from recycled plastics, lignin from wood pulp and cellulose.
First, however, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, working as part of a consortium with Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, must figure out how to lower the cost of carbon fiber composites. If they are successful in developing high-volume renewable sources of carbon fiber feedstocks, ORNL's Bob Norris believes they will be on the road to success.
"Whereas today the cost to purchase commercial-grade carbon fiber is between $8 and $10 per pound, the goal is to reduce that figure to between $3 and $5 per pound," said Norris, leader of ORNL's Polymer Matrix Composites Group. At that price, it would become feasible for automakers to use more than a million tons of composites-approximately 300 pounds of composites per vehicle-annually in the manufacturing of cars.
The big advantage of carbon fiber is that it is one-fifth the weight of steel yet just as strong and stiff, which makes it ideal for structural or semi-structural components in automobiles. Replacing half the ferrous metals in current automobiles could reduce a vehicle's weight by 60 percent and fuel consumption by 30 percent, according to some studies. The resulting gains in fuel efficiency, made in part because smaller engines could be used with lighter vehicles, would also reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions by 10 percent to 20 percent.
All of this would come with no sacrifice in safety, as preliminary results of computer crash simulations show that cars made from carbon fiber would be just as safe-perhaps even safer-than today's automobiles. Today's Formula 1 racers are required by mandate to be made from carbon fiber to meet safety requirements.
Progress in developing affordable carbon fiber composites has been steady as ORNL researchers with the support of the University of Tennessee work to optimize raw materials and spinning processes for alternative forms of carbon fiber precursors from renewable sources.
Another focus is on developing an efficient carbon fiber oxidation process, which would significantly increase production and lower cost of this raw material. One promising possibility is plasma processing technology to rapidly oxidize precursor fibers. In this area, ORNL is working with Atmospheric Glow Technologies, a high-tech company spun off from UT that has expertise in atmospheric pressure plasma processing. This is a technique to generate and use plasmas in a non-traditional way-in the open atmosphere instead of in a carefully controlled environment such as in inert gases and at very low pressures.
ORNL is also establishing a modular carbon fiber research pilot line to evaluate these revolutionary new processes on a comparable basis against conventional industrial processes.
"The goal is to demonstrate and transfer the technology to producers of carbon fiber, which could be existing carbon fiber producers or perhaps companies in the forest product industries," Norris said.
Researchers also are working to develop techniques to allow high-volume cost-effective processing of carbon fiber, hybrid glass-carbon fiber and reinforced thermoplastic material forms. In addition, ORNL recently installed an advanced preforming machine that features a robotically actuated arm that chops and sprays fiber and a binder in powder form to create fiber preforms. After being set at elevated temperature, the preforms are injected with resin in a mold and consolidated under pressure to create the final part.
"The preforming process is the first step in creating polymer composite structural and semi-structural auto parts that are lightweight and cost-competitive with metal parts they would replace," Norris said.
UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy. This research is funded by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The big advantage of carbon fiber is that it is one-fifth the weight of steel yet just as strong and stiff, which makes it ideal for structural or semi-structural components in automobiles. Replacing half the ferrous metals in current automobiles could reduce a vehicle's weight by 60 percent and fuel consumption by 30 percent, according to some studies. The resulting gains in fuel efficiency, made in part because smaller engines could be used with lighter vehicles, would also reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions by 10 percent to 20 percent.
All of this would come with no sacrifice in safety, as preliminary results of computer crash simulations show that cars made from carbon fiber would be just as safe-perhaps even safer-than today's automobiles. Today's Formula 1 racers are required by mandate to be made from carbon fiber to meet safety requirements.
Progress in developing affordable carbon fiber composites has been steady as ORNL researchers with the support of the University of Tennessee work to optimize raw materials and spinning processes for alternative forms of carbon fiber precursors from renewable sources.
Another focus is on developing an efficient carbon fiber oxidation process, which would significantly increase production and lower cost of this raw material. One promising possibility is plasma processing technology to rapidly oxidize precursor fibers. In this area, ORNL is working with Atmospheric Glow Technologies, a high-tech company spun off from UT that has expertise in atmospheric pressure plasma processing. This is a technique to generate and use plasmas in a non-traditional way-in the open atmosphere instead of in a carefully controlled environment such as in inert gases and at very low pressures.
ORNL is also establishing a modular carbon fiber research pilot line to evaluate these revolutionary new processes on a comparable basis against conventional industrial processes.
"The goal is to demonstrate and transfer the technology to producers of carbon fiber, which could be existing carbon fiber producers or perhaps companies in the forest product industries," Norris said.
Researchers also are working to develop techniques to allow high-volume cost-effective processing of carbon fiber, hybrid glass-carbon fiber and reinforced thermoplastic material forms. In addition, ORNL recently installed an advanced preforming machine that features a robotically actuated arm that chops and sprays fiber and a binder in powder form to create fiber preforms. After being set at elevated temperature, the preforms are injected with resin in a mold and consolidated under pressure to create the final part.
"The preforming process is the first step in creating polymer composite structural and semi-structural auto parts that are lightweight and cost-competitive with metal parts they would replace," Norris said.
UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy. This research is funded by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Carbon Fiber Current Events and Carbon Fiber News RSSMIT researchers make carbon nanotubes without metal catalyst
Carbon nanotubes - tiny, rolled-up tubes of graphite - promise to add speed to electronic circuits and strength to materials like carbon composites, used in airplanes and racecars.
The Midnight Ride of the CMS Tracking Detector
Scientists of the U.S. CMS collaboration today (Dec. 20) joined colleagues around the world in announcing the successful installation of the world's largest silicon tracking detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
UC Riverside physicists contribute to state-of-the-art detector installed in Switzerland
UC Riverside scientists led by Gail Hanson, a distinguished professor of physics, are part of a collaboration of approximately 2300 international physicists who announced Dec. 19 that the world's largest silicon tracking detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, had been successfully installed.
World's Smallest Radio Fits in the Palm of the Hand . . . of an Ant
Harnessing the electrical and mechanical properties of the carbon nanotube, a team of researchers has crafted a working radio from a single fiber of that material.
Brush anode and tubular cathode scale up microbial fuel cells
Generating electricity from renewable sources will soon become as easy as putting a brush and a tube in a tub of wastewater.
Cornell researchers test carbon fiber to make tiny, cheap video displays
Engineers who develop microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) like to make their tiny machines out of silicon because it is cheap, plentiful and can be worked on with the tools already developed for making microelectronic circuits. There is just one problem: Silicon breaks too easily.
MSU professor creates one of nation's largest databases for wind energy research
In a little lab on the campus of Montana State University, John Mandell, Dan Samborsky, and scores of students, have been breaking things to advance the field of wind energy.
K-Staters design and build a low-cost remote sensing tool for environmental studies
A Kansas State University research team is prototyping a small, inexpensive remote-control plane as a sensing tool, also known as an unmanned aerial vehicle, to collect environmental data.
Carbon fiber--new muscle for old bridges
Forget the concept of "supporting wall." With the aid of carbon fiber it is now possible to reinforce concrete, making a concrete bridge, for example, considerably stronger. The method has been used to reinforce the much discussed trolley-car bridges in Stockholm, Sweden as well as many buildings and construction projects all around the country. Several bridges along the Ore Railroad in northern Sweden have also been strengthened with carbon fiber. The strength of carbon fire makes it a highly effective reinforcement for concrete. By gluing a thin layer of carbon fiber to an existent concrete bridge, it is possible to make the bridge stronger. In a new doctoral dissertation at Lule'
From trees to high-performance ceramics
When a racing driver brakes, the discs and linings become red-hot. These parts are commonly made of carbon-fiber-reinforced carbon and are black at moderate temperatures. Car manufacturers and their suppliers would dearly like to extend the use of these special brake pads and other hard-wearing parts developed for racing vehicles to perfectly normal family cars - if only the cost was not prohibitive. This may now be possible using a new fiber-composite material that could almost be referred to as a “renewable ceramic”. Its carbon matrix is made of carbonized flax, hemp or wood fibers, which are then permeated with liquid silicon to form a high-strength, wear- and temperature-resi
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