The Carbon Fibre Composites Consortium is composed of around 40 organisations with an interest in the development and commercial deployment of new carbon fibre and composite materials.
The Consortium is managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the largest science and energy national laboratory in the US Department of Energy system. ORNL will soon complete construction of the Carbon Fibre Technology Facility (CFTC), which will include a pilot plant capable of producing up to 25 tons per year of new carbon fibre materials from several different precursors, including lignin.
Canadian company Lignol is engaged in a wide range of application development projects incorporating its proprietary HP-L™ lignin into many core products of the chemical industry, such as coatings, resins, composite materials and thermoplastics.
One key area of development is the use of HP-L lignin as a raw material for carbon fibre manufacture. Lignol has been working on Lignin-Carbon Fibre with a number of groups around the world, including universities, research institutes such as ORNL, automotive companies and specialised materials manufacturers.
