Thread Content
According to a report from Sinochem News on May 8, the news office of Sinopec informed that the two production lines in the first phase of Shanghai Petrochemical’s project for manufacturing 30,000 tons of large-tow carbon fiber per year have been put into operation, producing qualified products whose performance meets international advanced standards. This is the largest 48k large-tow carbon fiber production line in China, with a designed annual capacity per line of over 3,000 tons. Leveraging Shanghai Petrochemical’s proprietary large-tow carbon fiber technology as well as the abundant green energy resources in Inner Mongolia, this project aims to build 10 energy-efficient carbon fiber production lines. In this first phase, 2 production lines were established, featuring fast construction speeds, a high degree of localization, and low costs per ton of product. Building on the original large-tow carbon fiber technology developed by Shanghai Petrochemical, this project has seen its single-line production capacity increased by 50% through continuous research and iterative improvements. The localization rate of key equipment reaches 100%, and it took only 188 days from the start of construction to the completion of the mechanical installations, setting a new record for the fastest construction speed among similar facilities in the industry. Leveraging Inner Mongolia’s abundant wind and solar energy resources as well as its advantage in labor costs, the project can achieve a green electricity usage rate of over 60%. Compared to using coal-powered electricity, each production line can reduce carbon emissions by 20,000 tons per year, which is equivalent to planting 1.25 million trees. At the same time, the project’s capital increase brought in Sinopec, Dongfang Wind Power, Wushen Banner State Investment Group, and CCB Investment, thus creating an industrial ecosystem that encompasses technical support, market applications, policy assistance, and financial backing. This ecosystem attracted strategic partners in the wind power sector to establish operations in Ordos, and it helped to build a circular industrial chain that links green energy with high-end new materials, namely \"green electricity – carbon fiber new materials – wind power industry\", thereby promoting the high-quality development of the carbon fiber industry chain. It is reported that the 8 production lines in the second phase of this project are expected to be fully built and put into operation by the end of 2027. Carbon fiber boasts excellent properties and is known as the “king of new materials” and “black gold”. In the carbon fiber industry, carbon fibers with more than 48,000 fibers per bundle are generally referred to as large-tow carbon fibers. The large-tow carbon fiber developed and produced by Sinopec is a high-strength new type of fiber material with a carbon content of over 95%. It has excellent mechanical properties; its density is less than one-fourth that of steel, yet its strength is 7 to 9 times that of steel, in addition to having corrosion-resistant characteristics. Compared with small-tow carbon fibers, the greatest advantage of large-tow carbon fibers is their high output per production line under the same conditions, lower production costs, and significant advantages for large-scale application. Sinopec is the first company in China and the fourth in the world to master the core technology for large-tow carbon fibers. It is also the first company globally to achieve commercial production of 48k large-tow carbon fibers of T700 or higher grades. At present, it has the capability to produce nearly 20 different types of carbon fiber products with tow specifications such as 24k, 48k, and 60k. The company has pursued a path of collaborative innovation that integrates production, academia, research, and application, with itself as the key player in this process. By the end of 2025, Sinopec had filed 868 patents in the field of carbon fibers and their composite materials, ranking first in China and third in the world in terms of the number of patent applications. It has been granted 417 patents, and 4 PCT applications have been submitted.