Commercial Trends

Sales of advanced and inorganic fibres are expected to increase globally at 9.3% a year up to the year 2002. according to Business Communications Co. Inc. (BCC). In the USA, the growth rate will be 10.8% a year, to reach a total market value of 

The world market was over US 1 billion in 1997, with the US market by far the largest segment, representing over 60 K). This situation will continue for the next five years forecasts BCC. 

The use of high-performance carbon fibre is expected to grow as prices are reduced. As a result of improved production technology and increased capacity, prices of carbon fibre, which were in the region US 26.5-3 3 kg , have come down to the lower level, but are still prohibitive for applications in automobiles and railways. However, a level of US 11 kg (representing a 50% reduction) has been put forward as a guideline for large users. 

Compared with glass fibre, carbon delivers comparable physical properties at around 2 5% the weight, but this is not enough to offset a cost increase of some 4.4 times. But. at a price oflJSSl 1 kg (as projected by Zoltec) the cost penalty is only 1.8 times where the user is looking only for tensile strength and comes down to 1.3 times where the key property is tensile modulus. 

As the cost of the precursor can account for as much as 70% of the total production cost of carbon fibre, an important contribution to cost reduction has been the development of other precursors. 

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FORMALDEHYDE. CAS 50-00-0], HCHO. formula weight 30.03. colorless gas with pungent odor, mp — 92 C, bp -2 °C, sp gr 0.815 (at —20"C). The gas is very soluble in H2O. alcohol, and ether. Formaldehyde usually is produced and marketed as a 37% (weight) solution in water. From 3 to 15% methyl alcohol normally is added as a stabilizer 10 prevent paraformaldehyde formation. The commercial trend is 10 furnish a more concentrated product (up 10 50% HCHO hy weight) which contain as... 

It is also relevant that silica microspheres being readily biodegradable and of no toxicity, they will not contaminate the environment as the cmrent commercial trend in their use continues, production of increasing quantities of sol-gel-derived silica-based fimctional materials will inevitably result in the introduction of granules and microparticles made of amorphous silica (or organosilica) in environmental matrices and in the biosphere (Table 18.2). 

Chapel DG, Mariz CL. Recovery of CO2 from flue gases commercial trends. In Canadian society of chemical raigineers annual meeting. Saskatoon, SK, Canada, October 4-6 1999. 

D. G. Chapel, C. L. Mariz and J. Ernest, Recovery of C02from flue gases commercial trends, Canadian Society of Chemical Engineers, Annual Meeting, 1999. 

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