According to reports, the diameter of high modulus (high thermal conductivity) mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber is only 1/7 of that of a human hair, but its strength is 9 times that of steel; its weight is less than 1/4 of that of steel; its thermal conductivity is 3 times that of copper. times or more. According to Chang Xusheng, general manager of the company, the most prominent features of high-performance mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers are high thermal conductivity and high modulus, and are key materials used in aerospace, high-end manufacturing, new energy industries, and communications.

Instability of raw materials used to be a problem

In view of the important significance of mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber in the fields of aerospace and modern high-end equipment, in recent years, domestic scientific research institutions and enterprises have carried out a lot of research and development, but few enterprises have achieved large-scale production. The basic raw materials of pitch-based carbon fiber come from the by-products of refining and chemical enterprises – catalytic oil slurry, pyrolysis tar, coal tar pitch, etc. Due to scale problems, the quality of the obtained raw materials is very unstable.

“Our raw materials are obtained from Fushun Petrochemical, using the ethylene cracking tar produced by Fushun Petrochemical in the oil refining process, using our own developed heavy aromatics refining technology, and then condensing heavy aromatics to prepare mesophase pitch, which can now be produced stably. “Chang Xusheng said.

1200 tons/year capacity under implementation

At the end of 2019, Norco Carbon has built a 20-ton/year mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber (MPCF) industrial production line. After the previous process improvement, process optimization, and trial production, this year, the production line has the large-scale production capacity, and the product indicators have reached the international advanced level. The second phase of the mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber project with an annual output of 1,200 tons is under implementation.

At present, Norco Carbon’s products have been applied in the field of high-end equipment, and each kilogram of mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber can be sold for 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. In the future, the company’s output will be expanded to kilotons and ten thousand tons, allowing mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers to be applied to more fields.