Carbon fiber’s large ecological footprint centers around the way in which acrylonitrile, the base material for commercial carbon fiber, is currently made: from petroleum, using a process that uses quite a bit of energy, requires an expensive catalyst, and yields hydrogen cyanide, a toxic byproduct. This also helps explain carbon fiber’s high price, as just the acrylonitrile itself—two pounds of which are required for each pound of finished product—accounts for more than half of the production cost of carbon fiber.

Fortunately, this issue is at the center of biomass research that aims to make significant cuts to costs and eventually to wean carbon-fiber production off oil entirely. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) last month announced that they have created a new catalytic process that is both compatible with renewable feedstocks and has a far better yield than the existing process—98 percent versus 80 to 83 percent. The research team estimates that, using cellulosic biomass (from wood, grasses, or even paper pulp) or starch-based sugars, it could lower the cost of making the base material to below $1 per pound.

Growing (Not Pumping) the Materials

That cost target has been among the goals of the Renewable Carbon Fiber Consortium, a research effort with a budget of about $8 million funded mostly by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), along with other financial partners that include Ford. Transitioning to variable feedstocks should also make the price itself more stable, as the way it’s produced today leaves it open to fluctuations in typically volatile oil prices. Meanwhile, the demand for carbon fiber is projected to increase by up to 18 percent annually.

The DOE project, which is scheduled to last at least until the end of 2018, is focusing its research on uses for automotive lightweighting. But aircraft could benefit eventually, too.