A few days ago, the China Association for Science and Technology released the top ten industrial technology issues in 2023, "how to develop high-end technology of petroleum-based carbon materials" in the list. As a kind of high-value materials derived from petroleum, petroleum-based carbon materials have broad application prospects in the fields of energy, environmental protection, and chemical industry.
"In the future, with the advancement of technology and the expansion of application fields, petroleum-based carbon materials will play a more important role." Liu Dong, a professor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of China University of Petroleum (East China), said in an interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily that the realization of high-end petroleum-based carbon materials requires continuous exploration and innovation by universities and enterprises, and promotes the transformation of scientific and technological achievements., Product quality and other aspects, to open up the production process of high-end petroleum-based carbon materials.
The application prospect is broad, but large-scale production still faces challenges.
Petroleum-based carbon materials are a class of carbon materials prepared from petroleum or petroleum derivatives, which have the characteristics of easy graphitization, high crystallinity, high thermal stability and excellent electrical conductivity. These unique physical and chemical properties make it show great application value in many fields.
How to use the high carbon-hydrogen ratio of petroleum heavy components to prepare petroleum-based carbon materials is a hot spot in the research of this kind of materials. Liu Dong told reporters that using thermal conversion or catalytic conversion and other processes, hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbon compounds in petroleum feedstocks can be converted into solid materials with high carbon content and specific functional or structural characteristics. He said that the characteristics of petroleum-based carbon materials make them widely used in aerospace, new energy, electric vehicles, information electronics, rail transit, machinery and equipment, metallurgy and chemical industry and other fields and industries.
"Petroleum-based carbon materials have high thermal conductivity and excellent mechanical properties. They are excellent structural and functional integration materials. This is unmatched by other materials." Liu Dong introduced.
With the development of science and technology and the increase of demand, the application prospect of petroleum-based carbon materials in various fields will be more broad. In the field of metallurgy and energy storage, petroleum-based carbon materials have been widely used to prepare ultra-high power graphite electrodes and high-performance lithium-ion battery anode materials; in the nuclear industry, petroleum-based carbon materials can be used to prepare isotropic graphite for nuclear reactors.
Petroleum-based carbon materials Pitch-based carbon fibers and composites can also be prepared. Pitch-based carbon fibers have been widely used in aerospace, car body manufacturing and other fields due to their excellent lightweight and high modulus properties, electrical conductivity, fatigue resistance and corrosion resistance. Petroleum-based carbon materials are also commonly used as reinforcements for advanced carbon/carbon composites to improve the strength and hardness of composites.
Petroleum-based carbon materials are becoming the focus of global research and development. However, how to improve its performance, reduce preparation costs and achieve sustainable production is the main challenge for researchers and related enterprises. Liu Dong explained that the research and development and production of petroleum-based carbon materials require a large amount of special equipment investment, and the continuous updating of equipment will result in high depreciation rates and corresponding maintenance costs. In addition, the uncertainty of research and development and commercial application of petroleum-based carbon materials is relatively high, and the cost of research and development and commercialization is also large. And before petroleum-based carbon materials enter the market, they need to go through theoretical breakthroughs and repeated verification at the application level. Even through the theoretical experiment or demonstration production stage, it may still be unable to enter the large-scale production stage due to the limitation of equipment, process and other factors.
The development of high-end technology needs to promote the deep integration of industry, university and research.
In recent years, China has become one of the largest producers of petroleum-based carbon materials in the world, with more than 1,000 related enterprises, and industrial clusters have been formed in Changzhou, Wuxi, Qingdao and Shenzhen. After years of hard work, my country has continuously produced remarkable innovations in the research and application of petroleum-based carbon materials.
For example, in terms of high-power and ultra-high-power graphite electrode materials, relevant enterprises in China have successively built and put into production high quality needle coke production lines with an annual output of more than 100000 tons. The key performance index of needle coke, the thermal expansion coefficient, has reached the level of similar foreign products, which meets the basic needs of high-power and ultra-high-power graphite electrodes in China. In terms of high-performance petroleum-based carbon fiber, in recent years, China has realized the localization of high-performance carbon fiber with strength greater than 2.0 gigapascals, modulus greater than 600 gigapascals and thermal conductivity greater than 800 watts/meter-degree, which has solved the problem of independent guarantee of high-performance carbon fiber to a certain extent, making China the third country after Japan and the United States to master the core technology of the whole process of high-performance petroleum-based carbon fiber technology.
The development of high-end technology of petroleum-based carbon materials will effectively solve some current energy and environmental problems. Liu Dong said that it will first directly affect the upstream refining industry. "The high-end of petroleum-based carbon materials can not only promote the transformation of petroleum from fuel properties to material properties, promote the optimization of refining product structure, promote the transformation and upgrading of refining 'oil to special', but also solidify carbon atoms in carbon materials to achieve source emission reduction." Liu Dong said.
In addition, the downstream emerging carbon material industry will also be affected. With the refined development of high-end petroleum-based carbon materials, their types and quantities are gradually enriched, and their performance levels will continue to improve, which can meet different applications in new energy, aerospace, metallurgy and other fields, thereby driving the development of the entire industrial chain. "It can be said that the future of petroleum-based carbon materials will lead to the formation of hundreds of billions of new industrial chain." Liu Dong said.
It is a long-term and arduous task to realize the development of high-end technology of petroleum-based carbon materials. Liu Dong believes that we should take green and low-carbon development as the overall principle, formulate technology development and industrial development plans based on the upstream industrial foundation and downstream demand of China's petroleum-based carbon materials, and organize relevant colleges and universities to work together with enterprises to tackle key problems.
"Researchers and enterprises should continue to explore and innovate, promote the deep integration of industry, university, research and application, and make up for the shortcomings of the petrochemical enterprise industry chain. At the same time, they should work closely with downstream application enterprises to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements." Liu Dong said that in this process, researchers and enterprises should further study and improve the carbonization process, so as to improve the conductivity and mechanical properties of materials.
The progress of the petroleum-based carbon material industry is also inseparable from policy escort. Liu Dong suggested that it is necessary to improve the intellectual property protection system, formulate strict product standards and quality control systems, and further promote the development of high-end technology of petroleum-based carbon materials and the wide application of materials.