Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Question 1

[jonahl]

I am doing a study on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), a raw material used in the making of carbon fiber. I was wondering if anyone on the forum knew aproximately what percentage of a barrel of crude oil contributes to the production of PAN precursor? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

 

[Demon3]

I'm not sure what you mean by the question. If it's related to how "green" PAN is then I can say that not much oil is used to make plastics, only 4% of the World's oil. 42% goes to heating and 45% to transportation.

http://www.bpf.co.uk/Press/Oil_Consumption.aspx

Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem

http://www.phantomplastics.com

Consultant to the plastics industry

 

[jonahl]

Thanks Demon, that information is extremely helpful. I guess to further describe my question, lets say for example you had one barrel of crude oil. With your one barrel of crude oil, approximately what percentage could be used in the refinery process to produce PAN? I know it would be difficult to get an accurate number but just trying to get a ballpark figure. Thanks again!

 

[Demon3]

Yikes, that number is rather specialized and would be hard to get. If you'd asked what percentage of a barrel is separated into various components you'd have a chance but acrylonitrile monomer is made by a chemical route, probably in multiple steps from oil. Your best bet is to search for an LCA (life cycle analysis) of PAN if it exists.

Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem

http://www.phantomplastics.com

Consultant to the plastics industry

 

[unclesyd]

We use a small % of the Acrylonitrile (AN) produced at our facility in Texas City, Texas. The remainder goes to ABS and other Acrylic products including PAN.

We use about 200,000,000+ lbs of AN per year in the manufacture of Adiponitrile (ADN) for the production of Nylon. This is just a drop in the bucket of AN total production in the US.

Check out this report. You will have to do a little work to get the oil production at anyone time to derive your number.

http://www.acq.osd.mil/ip/docs/pan_carbon_fiber_report_to_congress_10-2005.pdf

If this is very important you can use someone like SRI to give you a number at any specific time frame. This service doesn't come cheap.

 

[jonahl]

Okay great, thanks for your help guys... it seems very ambiguous to get a specific answer. From the link below, which category would most likely fit the raw materials that end up producing PAN? Would it be a petrochemical feedstock? Thanks!

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/images/chap08_in_barrel_of_oil.jpg

 

[Demon3]

I have seen carbon and graphite fibers being made commercially from PAN and it's a very heat intensive process with heating to 900-1100 Celsius. I would guess that the oil used to accomplish the heating may well dwarf that used to make the PAN.

Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem

http://www.phantomplastics.com

Consultant to the plastics industry

 

[patprimmer]

Why do you want to know. Is this a high school science project?

Regards
Pat
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