China'S "Carbon Valley" Is Not A Dream

This is a memory about the "Silicon Valley" of the United States: time flows back to 1938, when a young man named Bill Hewlett settled down in an apartment in a suburb of mountain city in the United States.

There was a garage in the small apartment house, where he and his companion made their first product, an audio oscillator, and set up a company.

By 1950s, the company founded by Bill Hewlett has become a fast growing enterprise relying on manufacturing technology instruments. It is HP.

Later, the garage became

In November 18, 2011, China's annual output of 5000 tons of carbon fiber precursor production line was formally put into operation in Jilin chemical fiber group.

When a strand of tow is sprayed out of the spinneret and washed, pulverizing and drafting to form a clean carbon fiber precursor, the reporter can travel through time and space. 10 or 20 years later, it may not take so long for people to have a memory of China's "carbon Valley", and this product line and workshop which create the production capacity of China's carbon fiber precursor are regarded as an important symbol of "carbon Valley".

Wang Jinjun, chairman of Jilin Chemical Fiber Group Co., Ltd., told reporters about a period of history. Jilin has made more than 30 years of carbon fiber research, but there has been no major breakthrough.

After analyzing the causes of the Jilin municipal government and science and technology departments, we found that most of the foreign carbon fiber producers are light industrial enterprises, and have rich experience and strength in producing fiber.

So, in 2008, Jilin decided to hand over the raw silk production project to Jilin chemical fiber group, and won 1 million 500 thousand yuan of scientific research funds for the group.

Among them, Jilin science and Technology Bureau invested 700 thousand yuan, that is the largest expenditure of science and Technology Bureau of science and technology support funds.

After receiving this important task, the Jilin chemical fiber group has been extremely excited by the "hard nut" quality inherited by the old state-owned enterprises. The leading cadres of the group led all the scientific research personnel to go all out to make a successful attempt in a year and a half, and soon won the special project of the national development and Reform Commission.

The experts in the industry described the production of carbon fiber in China as "late blooming". Although the starting time is not too late, due to various reasons, the development of carbon fiber in China is still at a pilot level of low performance and unstable production, and the quality of carbon fiber is far from meeting the needs of national defense and national economic development.

At the same time, the most competitive enterprises in the world's carbon fiber industry, such as Dongli, Toho, rayon and MITSUBISHI rayon, monopolized and blocked the precursor production technology and made most of the carbon fiber used in China.

In early 2008, the leaders of the party and the state made important instructions on the research and development of carbon fiber, and demanded the development as soon as possible.

In the process of forging China's "carbon Valley", the Jilin chemical fiber group, which has gone through half a century, is no doubt a leading enterprise, just like HP and Westinghouse of the US Silicon Valley.

According to Wang Jinjun, starting from the pformation of the old two acrylic production lines for the research and development of carbon fiber precursors, Jilin chemical fiber scientific research personnel went all the way. Through the integration of laboratory results and acrylic fiber production experience, the large-scale industrialization production technology of PAN based carbon fiber precursor was integrated and innovating, and the first batch of qualified carbon fiber precursor was rapidly produced, with an annual capacity of 1500 tons.

The only raw silk used in high-end industry in China

It took only two years for Jilin chemical fiber to realize the important task of production and supply of polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber precursor, which is necessary for the production of carbon fiber for China's "carbon Valley".

When it comes to the production process of carbon fiber precursor, Wang Jinjun, a technical worker, has a special feeling and endless words.

Wang Jinjun gave a detailed account of the technological process of carbon fiber precursor for reporters. After the Jilin chemical fiber group accepted the production of raw silk, it summed up the practical experience of more than ten years of wet two step acrylic fiber production, and deployed a group of experienced experts and technicians to tackle the problem of more than 20 people.

In January 2007, Jilin Chemical Fiber Co operated with Changchun University of Technology for independent research and development. Through the integration of laboratory results and acrylic fiber production experience, the industrial production technology of "T300 grade polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber precursor" was integrated and innovating.

The technology uses three phase aqueous suspension polymerization to produce carbon fiber precursor polymer, and then uses wet two step process to produce carbon fiber precursor. The product has short process, stable quality and high yield.

At present, this process has obtained two national invention patents, namely, the preparation method of polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber precursor polymer, and the preparation method of a pan based carbon fiber precursor.

In December 2008, Jilin chemical fiber group invested 550 million yuan to set up Jilin carbon Valley Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd., introducing the most advanced equipment abroad, and began to set up an annual production project of 5000 tons of PAN based carbon fiber precursor.

The project has built four production lines, one of which is a carbon fiber precursor production line with an annual production capacity of 500 tons T300 grade 1K and 3K, and the other 3 are 1500 tons of low cost T300 grade carbon fiber precursor production line.

In April 2009, the project was listed by the municipal government as the major technology project of Jilin scale industrial enterprise technological innovation development plan (2009~2012).

Under the strong support and attention of governments and leaders at all levels, after two years of preparation, installation and construction, in September of the same year, the annual production of 5000 tons of PAN based carbon fiber precursor production line of Jilin chemical fiber group was successfully tested, and it was put into operation on the whole line in November 18th. The annual sales revenue is expected to reach 400 million yuan, with a profit of nearly 180 million yuan.

Jiang Shicheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering, highly commented: "the technology of the raw silk production line is the first in China, and the Jilin chemical fiber group is the only enterprise in the country that uses wet process two steps to produce raw silk.

The two methyl acetamide two step technology adopted by them is more suitable for large-scale and continuous production compared with other enterprises' two methyl sulfoxide one-step technology, and it can effectively and steadily produce.

Academician Zhou Guotai of the National General Armament Department has fully affirmed the quality and performance of the carbon fiber precursor of Jilin chemical fiber group. He said, "this is the only carbon fiber precursor that can be used in the field of high technology in China."

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Scientific control seeks maximum stability of products

Wang Jinjun told reporters that the two step polymerization kettle has uniform heat dissipation, strong temperature controllability, obviously superior to one-step method, and in the wet two step production process, polymer can be fully washed and thoroughly removed impurities, so that the quality of raw silk can be effectively guaranteed.

Jilin chemical fiber group has more than 10 years of acrylic wet process two step production process and equipment foundation, and has practical experience in engineering control of polymerization and spinning devices. Therefore, the rich experience of wet two step acrylic fiber production has played a great role in the production of acrylic based carbon fiber precursor by two step process, which makes the engineering control of carbon fiber precursor handy and flexible.

Because Jilin chemical fiber group has relatively mature acrylic two step production process and equipment, on this basis, the improved two carbon fiber precursor production device has good scalability and can be advanced and retractable.

Wang Jinjun explained that once the production of carbon fiber precursor is not successful, it can turn to produce qualified acrylic fiber and avoid too much loss.

The 5000 ton carbon fiber precursor of Jilin chemical fiber group is a large continuous production device designed by itself, which effectively ensures the stability of the product.

The original equipment used is a small polymerizer, with an annual capacity of only 150 tons.

After pformation, the capacity of the large polymerizer has reached 10 thousand tons.

After the introduction of carbon fiber precursors, the group can adjust the output according to market demand and produce carbon fiber precursors of 24K and 48K on the basis of 12K carbon fiber precursor production line.

When it comes to the research and development of carbon fiber production equipment, Wang Jinjun believes that the complete set of foreign equipment can not be used.

The carbon fiber precursor production equipment of Jilin chemical fiber group is based on its own pformation and design. Foreign experts are invited to conduct targeted design, forming their own unique and flexible technological characteristics.

At present, 1K and 3K carbon fiber precursor products of Jilin chemical fiber group have been certified by experts and have reached the product standard of military carbon fiber precursor.

Wang Jinjun said that the biggest problem of domestic carbon fiber production is that it can not guarantee stable production, and the goal of Jilin chemical fiber is "not pursuing the highest product specifications, but the best product stability".

Wang Jinjun is confident of the stable production of carbon fiber precursor of Jilin chemical fiber. He believes that the scientific control of the device enhances the stability of the product.

Group technicians take fixed time monitoring and conduct a product test every few hours. Once the polymer index is not qualified, the products will automatically enter the unqualified silos, and then proceed to downgrade, enter the low-grade production line, and produce carbon fiber precursors used for thermal insulation materials. This basically ensures the high quality of Jilin chemical fiber carbon fiber precursor.

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Meeting national development needs is a top priority.

The quality assurance of Jilin chemical fiber carbon fiber precursor is well known. The commissioning of the 5000 ton carbon fiber precursor project has attracted a large number of downstream users.

The goal of Jilin chemical fiber is to strive to expand the international market on the basis of stabilizing the domestic raw silk market. At present, the countries that have established cooperation with Jilin chemical fiber have Iran, Russia and Korea. In addition, the group will intensify its efforts to buy Greece's raw silk market.

Wang Jinjun said: "the state has strongly supported the project. Therefore, our priority is to meet the needs of national development as much as possible and to make profits."

Wang Jinjun can attribute the project to the completion and operation in a short time, and attach great importance to the country's highly valued policies and financial support.

In addition, cooperation and support in downstream application areas also played an important role in promoting the development of domestic carbon fiber industry.

It is understood that the National General Armament Department and the general Quartermaster Research Institute have put forward many suggestions on the production of carbon fiber precursor of Jilin chemical fiber group for a long time.

The most touching thing is that even if the domestic enterprises are small in capacity and weak in strength, they will continue to give guidance and help.

In the process of continuous growth and expansion of production enterprises, they try to use domestic carbon fiber materials as much as possible, and strive to improve the production level of carbon fiber.

Therefore, Wang Jinjun said: "these high-tech sectors that concern national development and safety, the greatest support for us is to use our carbon fiber products."

Wang Jinjun believes that the potential of the carbon fiber civilian market is greater than that of the military market, and the demand of the two markets can not be ignored.

According to the current market demand, with the gradual establishment and expansion of domestic carbonization plants, the market demand for raw silk will further expand. The Jilin chemical fiber group plans to add 15 thousand tons on the basis of 5000 tons of raw silk scale, and to the end of 12th Five-Year, reaching the scale of carbon fiber precursor with an annual output of 20 thousand tons.

At present, driven by the continuous improvement of Jilin chemical fiber raw silk production capacity, Jilin has rapidly developed a batch of carbon fiber precursor carbonization and deep processing products manufacturers.

In the past few years, the city has owned 7 carbon fiber industrial chain production enterprises, namely, the carbon fiber bicycle manufacturing enterprise, Jiyan high tech, high temperature lining production enterprise, and joint graphite, and formed a favorable atmosphere for industrial development.

This year, Jilin introduced a number of policies to support the carbon fiber industry to attract talents, and organized the relevant enterprises in the city's carbon fiber industry to set up a strategic alliance of carbon fiber industry technology innovation.

At the end of this year, Jilin's carbon fiber precursor production capacity will reach 5400 tons, 845 tons of carbon fiber and 150 tons of carbon fiber products, and it is expected to achieve 1 billion yuan in output value.

At this point, China's "carbon Valley" has begun to take shape, and the dream of several generations of Chinese people is coming true.