{"413561":{"#nid":"413561","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tyrone Wells Studies Potential of Lignin as Carbon Fiber Precursor","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECan carbon fibers produced from lignin provide a cost-effective alternative to today\u2019s costly carbon fiber production? Tyrone Wells, a Georgia Tech PhD candidate directed by Professor Art Ragauskas, will be spending a year in Sweden through the Gunnar Nicholson Fellowship Program to further study this very possibility of more optimal carbon fiber derivatization from forest bioproducts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECarbon fibers are composed of aligned crystal atoms of carbon and are virtually five-fold stronger than steel, with only 20% to 30% of the weight consequence.\u0026nbsp; Carbon fibers also possess a tensile strength greater than titanium, a thermal expansion lower than today\u2019s most commonly used alloys, and can even be spun into strands thinner than a human hair or molded into rigid shapes suitable for next-generation spacecraft.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETyrone sees lignin-derived carbon fibers as a material with the potential to easily revolutionize the future of civil, energy and automotive engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCarbon fiber also might be used in the future as a replacement for steel in the manufacture of cars, reducing weight significantly without sacrificing strength,\u201d Tyrone explained. \u201cFuel efficiencies could be realized even without changes to standard engines or electric and hybrid engines in use today.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis vision is that while the mass production of carbon fibers for many consumer applications is too costly today, alternative methods that can generate carbon fibers from highly abundant precursors, such as lignin, may result in a more cost-effective production strategy in the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, 98% of Kraft lignin is burned as low-value fuel in pulp mill recovery boilers. Issues that may arise at recovery boiler-limited mills have further stimulated the incentive to repurpose the biopolymer for higher utility functions. Kraft lignin, therefore, has developed substantial interest as a potential carbon fiber precursor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cResearch has made it clear that the mechanical properties of the resulting carbon fiber derivatives are related to the quality and chemical nature of the isolated Kraft lignin, which has spurred investigations toward economical upgrading processes of this biopolymer,\u201d Tyrone said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis interest in carbon fiber production will continue with his fellowship at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, to work with Professor Hans Thielander beginning late in the spring of 2013. His challenge will be to investigate novel means of optimizing Kraft lignin for carbon fiber production.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETyrone has been doing research at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) since 2010, initially working with bacteria that digest lignocellulosic biomass in order to produce higher utility biofuels. Using novel pre-treatment methods, he has seen dramatic results in Kraft lignin upgrading processes towards carbon fiber development, which led him to file a provisional patent last year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Wells explores lignin potential as an alternative for carbon fiber production"}],"uid":"27178","created_gmt":"2015-06-11 09:53:11","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:37","author":"Amna Jamshad","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"413551":{"id":"413551","type":"image","title":"Tyrone Wells","body":null,"created":"1449254222","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:37:02","changed":"1475895145","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:25","alt":"Tyrone Wells","file":{"fid":"202394","name":"130429_tyrone.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/130429_tyrone_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/130429_tyrone_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":101850,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/130429_tyrone_0.jpg?itok=4LGBXWzG"}}},"media_ids":["413551"],"groups":[{"id":"372221","name":"Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI)"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4754","name":"IPST"},{"id":"93811","name":"RBI"},{"id":"4174","name":"renewable"},{"id":"365","name":"Research"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKelly B. Smith, Marketing \u0026amp; Communication\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kelly.smith@ipst.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}