Carbon fiber from fast pyrolysis bio-oil

Abstract The fast pyrolysis bio-oil is a promising product to be used as fuel. It is produced by means of wood particles subjected to high heat rates for very little time. However, the resulting oil has a very high oxygen content, which to be used as fuel requires upgrading processes, which makes its costs higher than mineral oil. The aim of this paper is to study the fast pyrolysis bio-oil as a precursor of carbon fibers. A heat treatment in the bio-oil was used until the optimum softening point temperature was reached for the subsequent melt spinning process. Additives such as kraft lignin and furfuryl alcohol improved the spinning process and caused the fibers to resist the carbonization step. Characterization by Fourier-transformed infrared, 13 C VACP-MAS NRM and Raman revealed that the heat-treated bio-oil presented a great amount of oxygenated groups and that mainly the aromatization of the samples was verified after the carbonization process. SEM images showed that the fibers diameters were too high.