Melt-spinning of ionoSolv lignin for sustainable carbon fibre production

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Climate change is one of the most pressing issues that society currently faces. Light-weighting of vehicles could reduce emissions from transportation by 10%. A strategy to reduce the weight is replace steel with carbon fibre reinforced composites, however, they key ingredient, carbon fibre, is currently too expensive. Lignin is a major component of wood biomass (ca. 25%) and a promising alternative carbon fibre precursor to expensive and petroleum derived polyacrylonitrile and pitch. Lignin is a cheap co-product of sustainable biofuel production and has beneficial chemical properties for producing carbon fibres. Certain avenues of converting lignin to carbon fibres have been explored before, but the resulting carbon fibres had low strength. In this project, we will apply the ionoSolv lignin isolation process, state-of-the art lignin characterisation and fibre production technology, and novel chemical modifications to produce lignin fibres via melt-spinning.The goal is to reduce carbon fibre cost drastically by 75% while achieving the strength targets set out by the car industry.