Eberle lccf for turbine blade workshop 20160831 proceedings

1. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle
for the US Department of Energy
Low Cost Carbon Fibers
for Wind Energy
Cliff Eberle
Technology Development Manager
Carbon and Composites
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Director, Materials and Processing
IACMI – The Composites Institute
Presented at
2016 Wind Turbine Blade Workshop
Albuquerque NM
8/30 – 9/1/2016

2. 2 Presentation_name
ORNL Carbon Fiber R&D Drivers
Key Insight Consequence
CF is far too expensive &
volatile for cost-sensitive
industrialization
Alternative feedstocks &
manufacturing processes
needed
CF outperforms many high
volume application
requirements
Performance (but not
quality) can be traded for
cost reduction
CF will shift from specialty
material to industrial material
Economies of scale & lean
manufacturing practices are
critical
We anticipate CF industry emphasis to shift from extreme performance, high
cost, low volume to extreme volume, low cost, moderate performance

3. 3 Presentation_name
Classes of Commercial Carbon Fibers
UHM Pitch CF
HM PAN CF
IM
PAN
CF
DOE Spec
85
45
35
30
Tensile Modulus, Msi
Tensilestrength,ksi
Functional
15
150
Industrial
150
500
650
1000
SM & IM Pitch CF
YTS @ UTS
SM
PAN
CF
LCCF
Wind?

4. 4 Presentation_name
Typical costs and properties of PAN CF
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Fibertensilestrength,GPa
Fiber modulus, GPa
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
~$80/lb$30−$40/lb$15−$20/lb
~$10/lb
DOE price target:
$5−$7/lb
DOE-VT
requirement
Strength: 1,720 MPa,
Modulus: 172 GPa

5. 5 Presentation_name
Key Barriers to CF Industrialization
• Materials cost
– CF production cost
– Market volatility
– Supply chain not lean
• Scale
• High-rate composites
manufacturing
• Design tools
• Proven
crashworthiness
• Sunk capital
• Workforce
– Entrenched metals culture
– Inadequate composites
training
• Standards
• Repairability
• Resin compatibility
• Recycling
• Innovative competition

6. 6 Presentation_name
ORNL is addressing the highest cost
components of carbon fiber production
• New precursors to
replace specialty
PAN, including PAN
variants, polyolefin,
pitch, and lignin
• Advances in heat
treatment, including
microwave and
plasma technologies
• Acrylonitrile
• Fiber spinning
• Carbon yield

7. 7 Presentation_name
ORNL has produced textile based IMCF
with estimated cost reduction up to 50%
Lower cost precursor and
higher heat treatment throughput
CF tensile properties ~ 40 Msi (270 Gpa)
modulus and 400 ksi (2700 Mpa) strength
Estimated textile CF production cost
per modulus up to 50% lower than for
conventional CF
Composites database generation
underway for use in design,
modeling and application
development
The data generated will be appli-
cable to high volume industries
with energy applications

8. 8 Presentation_name
Test material is NCF C-PLY™ / Epoxy
Materials appropriate for turbine blades
Huntsman resins
Araldite® LY 1568
Aradur ® 3489 / Aradur ® 3492
Carbon fibers
ZoltekTM PX 35
ORNL SM and IM textile CF

9. 9 Presentation_name
NCF Composite Mechanicals
Not distributed in proceedings

10. 10 Presentation_name
New Potential Wind Application
One section of the wind turbine blade mold manufactured on the
BAAM-CI from 20% CF-ABS pellets
3D printed blade molds
use commercial CF
Good application for
chopped textile CF

11. 11 Presentation_name
Contrasts between Specialty and
Textile Acrylic Fibers
Parameter SAF TAF
Plant production capacity Order 10k tpy Order 100k tpy
Typical filaments per tow 12k – 60k 100k – 1,000k
Typical filament denier 0.7 – 1.5 1.5 – 3.0
Typical filament shape Round Often not round
Typical package Spool, non-crimped Bale, crimped
Co-monomer Methyl acrylate Vinyl acetate (usually)
or methyl acrylate
Co-monomer content 2% - 5% 7% - 13%
Molecular weight >> 100k grams/mol Order 100k grams/mol
Polydispersity index < 3 > 3
Relative purity 10 1

12. 12 Presentation_name
Carbon Fiber Cross Sections
Specialty acrylic fiber Textile acrylic fiber A
2.5-3.5 x 5-8 micron CF
Textile acrylic fiber B
2-4 x 8-11 micron CF
Textile acrylic fiber C
3.7 – 5.5 micron CF dia
Textile acrylic fiber D
3.5 – 5.5 micron CF dia
• How does fiber
cross section affect
performance in wind
turbine blades?
• It may be possible to
tailor cross section
if it is useful
Primary ORNL
precursor to date

13. 13 Presentation_name
ORNL is negotiating up to five licenses
for textlle CF production process
• Establish a low cost carbon fiber
industrial base in the United States
• Licensees able and committed to
bring the technology to market
• Create jobs and economic
opportunity in the United States
• Provide a return on taxpayer
investment in this technology
Licensees can collaborate with ORNL to opti-
mize their products, train staff and produce
sample materials at ORNL facilities until their
factories are commissioned

14. 14 Presentation_name
What about Pitch CF?
Pitch CF typically
suffer from low
ultimate tensile strain
and compressive
strength
J.G. Lavin, ‘High Performance Fibers’, Ed John Hearle,
Chapter 5, Woodhead Publishing, 2001

15. 15 Presentation_name
Summary
• Wind energy and other emerging high volume,
cost-sensitive markets are driving the
development of new carbon fiber production
technologies
• New developments in textile based CF may offer
cost-performance attributes matching the needs
of high volume industries
• Composites testing is underway with these new
textile based CF – further tests are planned to
evaluate applicability and/or tailorability to wind
energy industry

16. 16 Presentation_name
Acknowledgements
• ORNL R&D Team
• Academic and industrial partners
• DOE-EERE Advanced Manufacturing
• DOE-EERE BioEnergy Technologies
• DOE-EERE Fuel Cell Technologies
• DOE-EERE Vehicle Technologies
• DOE-EERE Wind Program
• ORNL Laboratory Directed R&D Program
• ORNL Program Management
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is operated by UT-Battelle, LLC
for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725

17. 17 Presentation_name
Questions?
Cliff Eberle
eberlecc@ornl.gov
865-661-4292
ORNL Carbon Fiber
Technology Facility