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5/24/2017
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The researchers achieved a new way to extract carbon fiber from paper and bio-fuel wastes
According to IRNA Science News Group on Thursday quoting from Science Daily, one of the wastes of paper making industries and bio-fuel is a kind of polymer called Lignin, 50 tons of which is annually produced only in the USA.
Moreover, around 100 to 200 million tons of this polymer is produced in the process of ethanol production from plants, while only 2% of this material is recycled and the rest is burned.
Lignin is a material which makes the wood hard and makes it very difficult for the wood to be decomposed.
It is usually required to bring the temperature at 500 o C and the pressure at 200 units in the process. Even in these circumstances, the compounds containing oxygen are what are obtained in the decomposition process of Lignin, and the separation of oxygen from the compounds has its own difficulties.
Now, the researchers have found a solution in which enzymes are used to decompose Lignin into groups of compounds with different molecular weights, the heaviest group of these compounds are used for producing carbon fiber.
The researchers are now trying to increase the quality of the obtained carbon fiber in this method and hope to use this carbon fiber produced in this method for the production of sport products and even bicycles.
In addition, the compounds with lighter molecular weight can be used to supply the required raw materials for different industries.
In fact, all Lignin compounds can be used in this method of decomposition, and approximately 250 million tons of wastes are turned into industrial raw materials