Domestic T1000-grade carbon fiber enters the fast lane. On May 21st, in the Green Chemical and Hydrogen Energy Industrial Park of Maoming Binhai New Area, Guangdong Province, the Donghua Energy's ten-thousand-tonne T1000 carbon fiber project officially commenced. The total investment of the project is 3.46 billion yuan, with construction content including 10,000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber and 40,000 tons of polyacrylonitrile powder.
Currently under construction, the domestic T1000-grade carbon fiber project also includes the Shanxi Huayang Carbon Material Technology Co., Ltd.'s thousand-tonne high-performance carbon fiber phase I, with a demonstration project of 200 tons/year. According to the latest news, the engineering and some equipment of the project's PC engineering general contracting were tendered in March this year.
Main performance and application scenarios of T1000-type carbon fiber: The following figure shows the latest version of the T1000-type carbon fiber product information released by Toray Industries, Inc. of Japan in February 2024. The tensile strength of T1000G carbon fiber is 6370 MPa (6.37 GPa), tensile modulus 294 GPa, fracture elongation rate 2.2%, and diameter 5μm. From the table, it can be seen that the current Toray T1000-type carbon fiber only has a 12K specification.
In addition, although Toray Industries has branches in France, South Korea, and the United States, the T1000-type carbon fiber is clearly marked as being produced only in Japan. Looking at the history of development, Toray's T1000G type carbon fiber was successfully developed in 1986, and at the beginning of the development, the tensile strength of this carbon fiber exceeded 7000 MPa, and the index was adjusted to the current 6370 MPa when commercialized.
As a product with high tensile strength, Toray's T1000G type carbon fiber is mainly used in key areas that urgently need lightweight, high-strength characteristics, such as pressure vessels for aerospace aircraft and satellites, and hydrogen storage tanks for fuel cell vehicles.
Which foreign companies can produce T1000-grade carbon fiber? Attentive netizens will find that the content written in the previous paragraph is T1000-type carbon fiber, while other parts are written as T1000-grade carbon fiber. This is because T1000 carbon fiber is a model product named by Toray Industries, so for Toray, it is T1000-type carbon fiber, while other companies' carbon fibers, although the performance is close, the model name is different.
In fact, as a high-tech product, there are not many countries abroad that can produce carbon fiber in scale, and for high-end products like T1000-grade carbon fiber, there are even fewer that can achieve stable production! The following table is a statistical table of different models of high tensile strength (>6000 MPa) carbon fiber products abroad, which are currently available. It is not difficult to find from the table that there are only three companies abroad that can provide T1000-grade carbon fiber, namely Toray of Japan, Hexcel of the United States, and Hyosung of South Korea. Although Mitsubishi of Japan does not provide T1000-grade carbon fiber, its MR70 carbon fiber has a higher grade.
As a rising star, Hyosung's H3065 type high-strength carbon fiber was successfully developed in October 2022. According to Hyosung, the strength of the H3065 type carbon fiber is more than 14 times that of steel and is expected to become a necessary material for space launch vehicles, satellite bodies, and missiles. For example, when used in launch vehicles, it can not only reduce weight to the maximum extent but also withstand high loads and improve thrust. The company's previous H2550 (T700 grade) carbon fiber products are mainly used for hydrogen fuel tanks, wire cores, solar heat insulation, and sports equipment.
Hexcel's IM9 type carbon fiber is a new 24K specification carbon fiber launched in March 2024. The uniqueness of this fiber, in addition to its high tensile strength, is that its diameter is significantly higher than that of IM8 and IM10.
In summary, as a carbon fiber with high tensile strength characteristics, there are very few companies abroad that can produce T1000-grade carbon fiber stably; in contrast, in recent years, domestic development in this field has been rapid, and many companies have mastered the technology for large-scale preparation.