Carbon fiber fabrication systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022098762-A1
Application number	US-202017032582-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 25, 2020
Priority date	Sep 25, 2020
Publication date	Mar 31, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods comprising: contacting a carbon fiber seed to a carbon-metal melt, drawing the carbon fiber seed to form a carbon fiber. And, systems and apparatuses comprising: a carbon fiber reactor for fabricating carbon fiber, the reactor comprising a receptacle for containing a carbon-metal melt, and a plurality of nozzles through which a plurality of menisci are formed by the carbon-metal melt for contact with a carbon seed to fabricate the carbon fiber.

First claim

What is claimed is the following:

1 . A method comprising: contacting a carbon fiber seed with a carbon-metal melt, drawing the carbon fiber seed from at a pulling rate to form a carbon fiber.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when the pulling rate is a pulling down rate from a meniscus of the carbon-metal melt, a temperature of the carbon-metal melt above the meniscus is above liquidus and the temperature below the meniscus is below liquidus; and when the pulling rate is a pulling up rate from the meniscus of the carbon-metal melt, a temperature of the carbon-metal melt below the meniscus is above liquidus and the temperature above the meniscus is below liquidus.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the pulling rate is about 10 mm/min to about 10,000 mm/min.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the pulling rate is 1,000 mm/min.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon fiber has a diameter in the range of about 1 μm to about 100 μm.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon fiber has a length of about 0.5 km to about 50 km.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon-metal melt comprises a carbon source selected from the group consisting a hydrocarbon gas, a hydrocarbon liquid, a hydrocarbon solid, a natural gas, a flared natural gas, a biogas, a pyrolysis gas, petcoke, coal, soot, recycled pure carbon fiber waste, recycled carbon fiber composite waste, a plastic, a recycled plastic, a biomass, organic waste, petroleum, an oil, biochar, a fossil fuel, and the like, and any combination thereof.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the carbon source is derived from a pyrolysis reaction of a reaction gas selected from the group consisting of a hydrocarbon gas, a natural gas, a flared natural gas, a biogas, a pyrolysis gas, and any combination thereof.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the pyrolysis reaction comprises: evaporating a catalyst source to produce a catalyst gas; condensing the catalyst gas to produce a catalyst vapor comprising catalyst droplets suspended in a gas phase; and contacting the catalyst vapor with the reaction gas so as to catalyze a decomposition reaction of the gas into hydrogen gas and the carbon source.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the catalyst gas before condensation is at a temperature of about 5° C. to about 500° C. greater than a boiling point of the catalyst.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein condensing the catalyst gas comprises: exposing the catalyst gas to the reaction gas, wherein the reaction gas is at a temperature below a boiling point of the catalyst.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the catalyst is a metal catalyst selected from the group consisting of zinc, cesium, selenium, rubidium, potassium, cadmium, sodium, polonium, tellurium, magnesium, ytterbium, lithium, strontium, thallium, calcium, and any combination thereof.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the metal catalyst is zinc.

14 . A system comprising: a carbon fiber reactor for fabricating carbon fiber, the reactor comprising a receptacle for containing a carbon-metal melt, and a plurality of nozzles through which a plurality of menisci are formed by the carbon-metal melt for contact with a carbon seed to fabricate the carbon fiber; and a heater for heating the carbon-metal melt.

15 . The system of claim 14 , further comprising a carbon source coupled to the carbon fiber reactor such that the receptacle of the carbon fiber reactor receives the carbon source, the carbon-metal melt comprising at least a portion of the carbon source.

16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the receptacle has a volume capacity of about 1 mL to about 1,000 mL.

17 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of nozzles comprises about 100,000 to about 50 million separate nozzles.

18 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of nozzles have a diameter of about 1 μm to about 100 μm.

19 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of nozzles have a length of about 1 μm to about 1,000 μm.

20 . The system of claim 14 , further comprising a fiber winder to receive fabricated carbon fiber from the carbon fiber reactor.

Assignees

• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc

Inventors

• Desai Divyaraj
• Iftime Gabriel
• Boysen Dane Andrew
• Rivest Jessica Louis Baker

Classifications

• D01F9/133 Primary

  Apparatus therefor · CPC title

• D01F9/32

  Apparatus therefor · CPC title

• B01J23/06

  of zinc, cadmium or mercury · CPC title

• D10B2101/12

  Carbon; Pitch · CPC title

• D01F9/12 Primary

  Carbon filaments; Apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture thereof · CPC title