Renewable Carbon Fibers Summary

DE-FOA-0000996

Executive Summary o Average Award Amount Ranging from $6,000,000 - $12,000,000 o Cost Share Greater than or equal to 20% of total project costs EXCEPT that cost share must be greater than or equal to 10% if: The prime organization is a domestic non-profit entity, state, local or tribal government Funding Opportunity Description o Description/Background FOA seeks to address both the EERE CEMI aims and to fulfill EERE BETOs mission by demonstrating a new technology pathway to produce high performance and low cost renewable carbon fibers Carbon Fibers are polymers that are typically made from petroleum and natural gas feed stocks (propylene and ammonia) that react to form acrylonitrile (ACN), which is then polymerized and spun into polyacrylonitrile (PAN) The Objectives of Renewable Carbon Fibers FOA are to: Identify and develop a cost-competitive technology pathway to high performance carbon fibers using biomass as a starting raw feedstock and bio-ACN as a target product Engage with industrial manufacturers of PAN that will benchmark and validate the bio-ACN w/ respect to the key technical performance attributes important for manufacturing lightweight automotive structural components Anticipated outcomes: Enabling the use of cellulosic sugars or lignin in the production of millions of metric tons of higher value commodity chemicals, such as bio-ACN Little is known about the potential of the new biomanufacturing process when considering the full material life-cycle Technical Priorities for the Renewable Carbon Fiber Effort: Highly efficient, scalable and integrated process to convert biomass into intermediates that are suitable for further upgrading to bio-ACN; Highly effective separations and products recovery processes at each of the material junctions that are able to be integrated w/ the conversion technologies; Manufacturing process validation of the bio-ACN technical performance attributes as manifested in the final PAN white fiber o Topic Areas/Technical Areas of Interest Topic Area One: Converting raw biomass sugars, algal oil, or lignin, to high quality acrylonitrile

Renewable Carbon Fibers Summary

DE-FOA-0000996

Phase One: Demonstrate one or more technologies that can effectively utilize sugars or lignin from biomass, or algal oils, to generate high quality intermediates o Applications Specifically Not of Interest Outside of Technical Parameters: Applications that do not have at least one letter of commitment from a PAN manufacturer and/or another partnering institution that endorses the specified critical performance attributes and metrology; and has all of the facilities and expertise necessary to carry out the testing of the acrylonitrile for the Stage Gate Validation Administrative and National Policy Requirements o Limitations on Compensation Costs: Annual capped at $250,000

Biomass

Biomass Intermediate (Sugar, Lignin)

Acrylonitrile Precursor (Amino Acid, SHP)

Acrylonitrile

Polyacylonitrile

Carbon Fiber

Vehicle Components

Bioenergy Technologies Office

Advanced Manufacturing Office

Vehicles Technologies Office

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