Transform carbon fiber, the future space can be expected

High-pressure gas storage tanks are one of the largest and fastest growing markets for advanced composites, especially carbon fiber winding composites. Pressure vessels are mainly divided into the following five types: Type I: all metal structure, usually steel; Type II: Mainly metal structure, and in the ring coated with a certain glass fiber composite material, the metal is mainly steel or aluminum, and the metal container and the composite material share the structural load roughly equal. Type III: Metal lining with complete composite outer packaging, usually aluminum, with carbon fiber composite; The carbon fiber composite material bears the structural load. Type IV: Fully composite structural polymer (usually high-density polyethylene or HDPE) lining, carbon fiber or carbon/glass fiber composite; Composite materials bear all structural loads. V-type: no backing, all composite construction.

The composite hydrogen storage cylinder comprises lining material, transition layer, fiber winding layer, outer protective layer and buffer layer from the inside to the outside. The cycle of filling the hydrogen storage bottle may be long, and the hydrogen gas has strong permeability under high pressure, so the hydrogen storage tank lining material should have good barrier function to ensure that most of the gas can be stored in the container. At present, the type I-IV high-pressure storage cylinder structure has been commercialized, and among the four types of hydrogen storage cylinders, Type I bottle has the largest market share, more than 90%, Type II bottle has about 4% market share, followed by Type III and Type IV, and Type V (the new name) ranks fifth. However, based on material use, composites are the fastest growing material type, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.9 percent, according to Grand View Research. The use of carbon fiber composite materials allows the weight to be significantly lower than that of all metal pressure vessels. However, due to the application of high-cost carbon fiber composite materials in type IV pressure capacitors, the production cost of IV bottles is correspondingly increased. For the cost composition of 35MPa and 70MPa high-pressure hydrogen storage IV cylinders with hydrogen storage mass of 5.6kg, the main cost is carbon fiber composite material, and the cost of carbon fiber composite material accounts for 75.66% and 77.74% of the total system cost respectively. Compared with the total cost of a 35MPa pressure IV bottle of $2,900, the corresponding cost increases to $3,500 when the pressure increases to 70MPa, a 21% increase in cost. The main reason is that as the pressure increases, the proportion of carbon fiber composite materials is greatly increased.

According to the 2021 Global Carbon Fiber Composites market report, in 2021, the amount of carbon fiber used in gas cylinders in the country is about 3,000 tons. Among them, the amount of breathing cylinder is about 600 tons, CNG cylinder is about 500 tons, and the amount of hydrogen storage cylinder is about 1900 tons. In the next few years, the growth of breathing cylinders will be relatively stable, but the growth will be limited by the base. The use of natural gas cylinders will increase over the next three years, but will slow down starting in 2025. The main growth will be in hydrogen cylinders.

2.6 Capacity expansion + capital injection, the company is expected to take the industry to accelerate development

On December 15, 2022, Jilin Chemical Fiber Group 150,000 tons of raw silk project Phase II No. 5 and No. 6 two 10,000-ton raw silk lines were successfully driven. This is also the fourth production line that the group has started to drive since the winter, and the production of this production line effectively meets the production needs of the downstream green new energy, automotive lightweight, winding gas cylinders and other fields. Since 2022, Jilin Chemical Fiber Group Company has successively launched 60,000 tons of carbon fiber project, 150,000 tons of differentiated acrylic fiber project and other provincial and municipal key projects, 150,000 tons of raw silk project under construction, 12,000 tons, 15 million tons of carbon fiber projects and composite projects are advancing simultaneously. In the whole year, 6 raw silk production lines and 6 carbonization production lines were built and put into operation. Previously, the total investment of Jilin Chemical fiber 12,000 tons of carbon fiber composite project was 1.458 billion yuan, mainly through the formation of new production capacity of 12,000 tons of carbon fiber composite project, according to the company's plan to issue additional and non-public stock issuance committee meeting preparation of the letter of reply to the report shows that after the completion of the project, The operating income will be 1.539 billion yuan/year, and the total profit will be 142 million yuan/year.

Jilin Economic and Technological Development Zone, where the company is located, is a national high-tech industrialization base for carbon fiber, which has formed industrial clusters and supporting facilities in the upstream and downstream areas of the carbon fiber industry. The company has engaged in the chemical fiber industry for decades of production experience, reserves a certain number of technical personnel and industrial workers. In the early stage, the company has gradually extended to the field of carbon fiber composites, and the small tow carbon fiber production line currently under construction by Jilin Kemike Chemical Co., LTD., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has provided experience for the company to enter the downstream field of the carbon fiber industry chain. At the same time, the company gradually holds 49% of the equity of Jilin Baojing Carbon Materials Co., LTD., becoming its main shareholder.