Manufacturing of High Performance Cellulose Fibres to Replace Glass fibres & Carbon Fibre Precursors

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy)
Not Energy Related
Energy Efficiency(Industry)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Chemical Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr K Potter
Aerospace Engineering
University of Bristol

Professor S Eichhorn
Engineering Computer Science and Maths
University of Exeter

Standard

EPSRC

01 July 2014

23 December 2020

78 months

£2,060,466

Materials sciences

South West; South West

Manufacturing : Manufacturing

Dr K Potter, Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol
Professor S Eichhorn, Engineering Computer Science and Maths, University of Exeter

Professor A Bismarck, Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
Dr SS Rahatekar, Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol
Professor T Welton, Chemistry, Imperial College London

Project Contact, University of Tennessee, USA
Project Contact, Valueform Limited
Project Contact, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA
Project Contact, Centre for Process Innovation - CPI
Project Contact, National Composites Centre
Project Contact, SHD Composites
Project Contact, Composites Evolution Ltd
Project Contact, Institute of Textile Chemistry and Chemical Fibers (ITCF), Germany
Project Contact, New College Stamford
Project Contact, Haydale
Project Contact, Aberystwyth University

To reduce society's dependence on petroleum based non-renewable polymers, large scale utilization of naturally occurring, abundantly available polymers such as cellulose needs to be developed. One of the major challenges in large scale utilization of cellulose from biomass is dissolution and processing of cellulose to prepare downstream products such as high performance textile fibres. The Viscose method is the most common way to manufacture cellulose fibres; however, it is a complex, multistep process which involves use of very aggressive chemicals and requires a large volume of fresh water. In the 1970s, petroleum based synthetic polymer fibres such as polyester and nylon were commercialised and were proven to be more economical than producing cellulose fibres via the Viscose method. Hence, the production of cellulose fibres was reduced from over 1.3 million tons per year in 1973 to 0.4 million tons per year by 2008 (Source: International Rayon and Synthetic Fibres Committee). To overcome this issue of processing of cellulose we are proposing to develop an environmentally benign method of manufacturing of high performance cellulose fibres using "Green Solvents". The proposed research will help develop sustainable and high performance cellulose fibres which can in-principle replace heavy glass fibres (which requires high energy during its manufacturing) and non-renewable polymer precursors used for manufacturing of carbon fibres which are widely used in composites for aerospace, auto, sports and wind energy industries in UK and abroad

11/12/14