INTRODUCTION Due to the significance of resource and energy efficiency, lightweight construction is becoming increasingly important throughout the industry1 . Carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP) have a particularly high lightweight construction potential, for example to replace traditional construction materials such as aluminum or steel1 . CFRP components are made of carbon fibres (CF) embedded in a polymer matrix system2 . They are characterized by low density combined with outstanding mechanical properties3 . Today, carbon fibre reinforced plastics are already used in numerous sectors such as the automotive, aerospace and energy industry1 . In the BMW i8, the entire body is made of CFRP1. In aeronautical engineering, aircraft such as the Airbus A350 is now being manufactured in which 50% of the structural weight is made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics1 . In the energy sector and in particular in the wind energy industry, CFRP is used due to the increasing size of rotor blades4 . Carbon fibres are produced from polymer fibres by means of a multi-stage thermal conversion process. Due to the expensive starting raw material and the complex manufacturing process, the average price for 1 kg of carbon fibres is ≥ 20 euros5 Figure 1. On-site energy consumption of a CF production line without precursor spinning (1,500 TPY)6 . the energy consumption of a CF production line in Figure 1. A large part of the process cost is caused by the thermal treatment of the starting material polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The first subprocess of thermal conversion is stabilization which consumes 30% of the total energy used for the CF-production6 . The high energy consumption during stabilization and the associated costs arise from high residence times of up to two hours4 . The energy consumption of carbonization is 14% of the total energy6 . Post-treatment consumes 10% of the total energy6. The reduction of stabilization time . The cost shares are illustrated by and thus the production costs of CF can accelerate the expansion of the application areas of this promising material. www. sampe.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | SAMPE JOURNAL | 9http://tmi-slc.com http://www.sampe.org