Technoeconomic and life cycle energy analysis of carbon fiber manufactured from coal via a novel solvent extraction process

Journal Article · Thu Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · International Journal of Coal Science & Technology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40789-025-00765-6· OSTI ID:2530775

Nagapurkar, Prashant ^[1]; Lara-Curzio, Edgar ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Coal is a versatile energy resource and was a driver of the industrial revolution that transformed the economies of Europe and North America and the trajectory of civilization. In this work, a technoeconomic analysis was performed for a coal-to-carbon-fiber manufacture process developed at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research. According to this process, coal, with decant oil as the solvent, was converted to mesophase pitch via solvent extraction, and the mesophase pitch was subsequently converted to carbon fiber. The total cost to produce carbon fibers from coal and decant oil via the solvent extraction process was estimated to be $$\$$$$11.50/kg for 50,000-tow pitch carbon fiber with a production volume of 3750 MT/year. The estimated carbon fiber cost was significantly lower than the current commercially available PAN-based carbon fiber price ($$\$$$$20–$$\$$$$30/kg). With decant oil recycling rates of 50% and 70% in the solvent extraction process, the manufacturing cost of carbon fiber was estimated to be $$\$$$$9.90/kg and $$\$$$$9.50/kg of carbon fiber, respectively. A cradle-to-gate energy assessment revealed that carbon fiber derived from coal exhibited an embodied energy of 510 MJ/kg, significantly lower than that of conventionally produced carbon fiber from PAN. This notable difference is primarily attributed to the substantially higher conversion rate of coal-based mesophase pitch fibers into carbon fiber, surpassing PAN fibers by 1.6 times. These findings indicate that using coal for carbon fiber production through solvent extraction methods could offer a more energy-efficient and cost-competitive alternative to the traditional PAN based approach.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 2530775
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 2538562
• Journal Information: International Journal of Coal Science & Technology, Journal Name: International Journal of Coal Science & Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2095-8293
• Publisher: Springer
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
Carbon fiber
Coal to carbon fiber
Life cycle Energy
Solvent extraction
Techno-economic analysis