Media coverage

A bundle of carbon fiber can pull two large airplanes! "The King of New Materials" opens up a 5 trillion yuan "new trend"

• 2024-01-11
• Media coverage

In recent years, a group of emerging industries that have flourished are becoming a new pillar in building a modern industrial system at a rapid pace. Among them, as the "chassis technology" of advanced manufacturing, new materials are an indispensable material foundation to support high-end equipment and major projects.

According to estimates, the total output value of the new materials industry exceeded 5 trillion yuan from January to September this year, maintaining double-digit growth. Where is the "new" of accelerating the explosion of new materials? What are the outstanding features compared to traditional materials?

On the field, it helps athletes break records; In life, it makes it a habit to wear light clothes on the battlefield; In space, it launches a fierce impact on metal materials. It is carbon fiber. A bundle of T1000 grade carbon fiber chopsticks thick and thin is enough to pull two domestically produced C919 aircraft. China is one of the few countries in the world that have the ability to research and develop carbon fiber on a large scale.

Chen Qiufei, Deputy General Manager of Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd.: A 5mm wide bundle of carbon fiber contains 12000 single fibers. The T1100 grade carbon fiber that has just been mass-produced this year is different from the breakthrough in the laboratory. Only through batch stable production can the quality be stable and meet the needs of a large number of industrial applications such as aerospace.

In 2021, China became the world's largest producer of carbon fiber for the first time; In 2022, the domestic use of carbon fiber exceeded the import volume for the first time. In May of this year, the world's largest single unit annual production of 25000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber project was fully put into operation in Xining. With the large-scale production of domestically produced carbon fiber, the prices that were once pushed up by import restrictions have fallen in response, and the demand for cost constraints has been greatly released.

An open area like a ski resort is the inner cavity of an offshore wind turbine blade, which reaches a length of 123 meters. And what hangs in the air is the main beam being lifted, mainly made of carbon fiber, and the role of the main beam in the blades is equivalent to that of a human spine.

The amount of carbon fiber used for a blade is about 10 tons, and the carbon beam accounts for one-fifth of the weight of the fan blade, while the cost accounts for more than one-third.

A thin layer of carbon beam, like seaweed, is laid among the huge fan blades, but in fact, the thickest part is composed of more than ten layers of carbon plates. A carbon plate weighing about one kilogram has a carbon fiber content of over 70%. Before this year, this factory had been using imported carbon fiber, and the price of a carbon board was around 150 yuan. The factory has been using domestically produced carbon fiber since this year, and the cost has decreased by half.

Cost reduction provides enterprises with more choices and products with more possibilities.

Li Chengliang, R&D Director of Zhongcai Technology Wind Power Blade Co., Ltd.: The 120 meter offshore wind turbine blades we are currently mass producing are the longest offshore wind turbine blades in the world. The main factor limiting further increase in blade length is weight. Nowadays, the blades are made of carbon fibers with ordinary modulus. If higher performance carbon fibers are used, the weight of the blades can be further reduced, and it is possible for the blades to be longer in the future.

Li Chengliang has gained confidence in the supply and price of carbon fiber from upstream suppliers in the future.

Even though wind turbine blades are already one of the industries with the largest usage of carbon fiber, carbon fiber is currently only used on the main beams of offshore wind turbine blades. Li Chengliang's team is planning to use higher performance carbon fiber in more critical components and attempting to use carbon fiber on onshore blades, which have a market size approximately ten times that of offshore wind turbines.

There are more and more industries that can afford carbon fiber, and the market for carbon fiber is also accelerating. Driven by the "dual carbon" strategy, hydrogen energy, as an important component of the future national energy system, has attracted a number of future industrial layouts, and storage and transportation are urgent challenges that need to be solved.

A hydrogen storage cylinder wrapped with carbon fiber is used for hydrogen transfer between hydrogen refueling stations. Compared to traditional hydrogen storage cylinders, the thickness of the inner liner of the cylinder wrapped in it can be reduced from two centimeters to one centimeter, and can transport 30% more hydrogen under the same weight.

Using lighter containers to store more hydrogen is the direction of industry development and also a place where carbon fiber can showcase its capabilities. A mass production line that has just obtained manufacturing licenses this year is currently collaborating with car companies to develop hydrogen storage cylinders for hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars.

A 63 liter hydrogen storage bottle can store hydrogen equivalent to 500 times its volume, and the inner wall of the hydrogen storage bottle is in a high-pressure state of 70 megapascals.

Ji Zengxiang, Deputy Director of the R&D Center of Zhongcai Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.: 70 megapascals can be understood as the weight that needs to be borne by 700 kilograms on an area the size of a nail cap. The white one is a plastic inner liner that serves as a seal, and the entire 70 megapascals of strength are entirely provided by black carbon fibers.

Whether it is a breakthrough from 0 to 1, or a deep cultivation from 1 to 100, new materials represented by carbon fiber continuously promote industrial leaps through technological innovation, leveraging product upgrades.

Gathering resources for collaborative innovation, China's new materials industry has entered a new stage of development

As a star in the field of new materials, carbon fiber is just a microcosm of the rapid development of new materials. Data shows that the total output value of China's new materials industry in 2022 is about 6.8 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 6 times compared to 2012, with an annual compound growth rate of over 20%.

Behind the breakthrough progress in multiple key new materials is the power of technological innovation, and the development of new materials further supports the progress of new technologies, accelerating the formation of new productive forces. How will new materials continue to exert force?

Gan Yong, director of the National New Material Industry Development Expert Advisory Committee and an academician of the CAE Member, said that the generation of materials determines the generation of technology. New materials are a chassis technology, but also an advanced technology. In recent years, it has been breakthroughs in key materials that have strongly supported the development of new generation technologies such as rail transit, manned spaceflight, energy engineering, electronic information, and biotechnology in China, and have formed a strong driving force for upstream and downstream industries.

Gan Yong, Director of the National Expert Advisory Committee on New Material Industry Development, CAE Member: With new steel materials and special alloy materials, we have built the world's longest high-speed railway of 42000 kilometers, and the development of new materials has promoted our new energy vehicles to lead the technological development in the world. We have made many breakthroughs in information materials, especially compound semiconductors. The development of these new materials has laid a good foundation for manufacturing powers to enter the high-quality stage of high-quality development.

At present, China's new materials industry is facing significant strategic needs and has entered a critical window of development. The key core areas represented by advanced new materials such as nanomaterials, carbon based materials, coating materials, advanced fiber materials, and third-generation and fourth generation semiconductors are becoming the focus of global future competition.

Gan Yong, Director of the National Expert Advisory Committee for New Material Industry Development, Academician of the CAE Member: especially in integrated circuits with the size of 14 nm, 22 nm or even 7 nm. We need to keep up with some materials in this regard. In the layout of cutting-edge materials, an important type of material is information new materials. It supports the overall computing power foundation of the country and the struggle for national strength in the future era of artificial intelligence. Now quantum communication, quantum display, quantum computing, and quantum detection are all being laid out, including future 6G materials and information storage materials. In fact, it also provides a foundation for future industrial development.

In recent years, global competition in the field of new materials has become increasingly fierce. Gan Yong believes that by gathering innovative resources through major national projects and building a multi subject, full chain, and systematic new material system, the transformation from a material powerhouse to a material powerhouse can be achieved. At present, the number of professional and skilled talents in the field of new materials in China ranks first in the world. Among them, there are over 200 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and over 1.15 million talents in materials science and technology; More than 60 national key laboratories for new materials; The recently launched major new materials projects are gradually being implemented, which will become the support for comprehensively promoting the high-quality development of China's new materials industry.

Gan Yong, academician of the CAE Member, director of the National Expert Advisory Committee for New Material Industry Development, said that a number of long-term, stable and high-level R&D platforms should be formed to comprehensively promote the high-end development of China's new materials. In the new stage of new quality productivity, new materials will enter a stage of vigorous development. Moreover, due to the huge demand for some materials, their development speed will surpass conventional ones driven by a super large market. With more and more domestically produced material varieties, their breakthrough ability in high-end materials will become stronger.

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