carbon

China already mass-produces the strongest carbon fiber in the world. And that changes the rules in defense, aeronautics and energy

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For decades, access to the world’s highest-performance composite materials has been a privilege of a few countries. For high-performance carbon fiber, Japan and the United States have controlled that market with a combination of technological advantage and export frameworks explicitly designed to keep China out. Last March we saw that this balance had changed, as the Chinese state group CNBM (China National Building Material Group) presented in Paris the world’s first mass production of T1200 grade carbon fiberthe highest step on the tensile strength scale of this material. What is the T1200. As we explained a while ago, in the world of carbon fiber, the letter T followed by a number is a direct resistance classification. The higher the number, the more force the material can withstand before breaking. T1200 exceeds 8 gigapascals (GPa) of tensile strength, making it about ten times stronger than conventional steel, with a density that is just one quarter of that of steel and with a filament diameter less than one tenth of a human hair. According to counted CCTV, a cable just over two millimeters thick, made up of 120,000 of these filaments, is capable of towing a bus full of 54 passengers. More companies join this fiber. China showed its prowess at the JEC World in Paris, but the industries have already gotten up and running. At the end of April, PetroChina announced the inauguration of its first carbon fiber project high-performance in the city of Jilin, with an investment of approximately 1.3 billion yuan (about 180 million dollars). It is relevant because it is no longer just CNBM, as the state energy giant enters the sector taking advantage of its dominance in the supply chain. Zhongfu Shenying, a subsidiary of CNBM, for its part, has commissioned additional production a new 10,000 ton plant standard fiber metrics. China’s idea is to build an industrial ecosystem from the top down, including mastering high-performance carbon fiber production techniques. China had not been able to manufacture it for decades. High performance carbon fiber has been on dual technology lists for decades use of the Wassenaar Agreement, the multilateral export control regime created in 1996 with 42 member countries including Japan and the United States, but not China. According to the China Composites Industry Association, the Agreement restricts the export of carbon fiber of high modulus (from grade T800) to non-member countries. This means that accessing materials above that threshold required, in practice, manufacturing them at home or obtaining them through alternative means. China did not have its first T300 until 2008. From there to the T1200 it took less than twenty years. It has taken Japan 43 to travel that same path. How China has accelerated so much. The model that has been repeated many other times and in other sectors: state capital, research from universities and industrial capacity functioning as a coordinated ecosystem, with the same approach as China has been applied to semiconductorsbatteries or electric vehicles. In this case the protagonist is CNBM, which developed the fiber through Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber. Zhou Yuxian, president of CNBM, counted in the presentation that the country has demonstrated “completely independent and controllable capabilities throughout the entire industrial chain”, from equipment to the transition from laboratory to mass production. Chen Qiufei, head of T1200 R&D at Zhongfu Shenying, added Furthermore, the new grade improves the resistance of the previous T1100 by more than 14% and allows the weight of the equipment to be reduced in the sectors where it is applied by more than 10%. Who led the market until now. Toray Industries, a Japanese company, dominates the global market with a production capacity of 29,100 tons per year. It also developed its own T1200 with 8 GPa strength, but so far has not announced a mass production line equivalent to that of CNBM. Mitsubishi Chemical, another Japanese giant, advertisement plans to double its high-performance capacity before 2027. The South Korean Hyosung Advanced Materials aims to reach 24,000 tons per year in 2028. On the other hand, on the American flank, Hexcel is defined as the main supplier of carbon fiber for aerospace and United States military programs. Where is it applied? High-performance carbon fiber has been used for decades in combat aircraft, missiles, satellites and military fuselages precisely because it combines extreme strength with extreme lightness. With the T1200, things go even further. According to counted Interesting Engineering, the material could redefine the limits of fifth and sixth generation military aircraft manufacturing. In the civil sphere, commercial aeronautics already consumes around 76% of global carbon fiber, and the T1200 would allow additional structural weight reductions on platforms such as the Boeing 787 or the Airbus A350. In energy, high-pressure hydrogen tanks use carbon fiber structures to withstand pressure with the lowest possible weight. China has also pointed out applications in humanoid robotics and in the so-called “low-altitude economy” (drones, air taxis and urban air mobility). The Chinese space company Welight Technology already operates a rocket whose structure is around 90% carbon fiber composites, which reduces weight by 25 to 30% compared to equivalent metal designs. Cover image | Zhongfu Shenying In Xataka | Brazil holds one of the largest reserves of rare earths in the world. And he doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake from centuries ago

James Webb has discovered that carbon “soccerballs” form megastructures in a vacuum

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In 1985, fullerenes were synthesized for the first time, spherical molecules that can have multiple functions in fields such as nanotechnology or superconductivity. Later, in 2010, was discovered that one type of fullerenes, buckyballs, form naturally in space. Now, a team of Canadian scientists has gone much further, deciphering many of the secrets of these curious structures, thanks to the great help of the James Webb Space Telescope. Small balls that make up a huge ball. Buckyballs are spherical structures, made of 60 carbons, with a conformation of hexagons and pentagons similar to that of a soccer ball. In 2010 they were discovered around a nebula called Tc1. Now, that same nebula has been the goal of James Webb, capable of going much further than they were then. To begin with, delicate rays, ethereal filaments and bright layers of gas along the edge have been detected in the nebula. On the other hand, in the heart of the nebula, a curious structure shaped like an inverted question mark has been detected, whose function is a mystery. But if all that were not enough, it has been seen that those buckyballs that were discovered in 2010 are perfectly organized, forming another hollow sphere, much larger. Chronicle of a death foretold. The stars remain lit thanks to nuclear fusion processes that take place on its surface. This is a very long process, but not eternal. There comes a time when they run out of the elements they use as fuel. When that happens, its outermost layers can break off in the form of gas and dust, giving rise to a nebula, like Tc1. The center, however, becomes a white dwarfa type of cold and dense star. The buckyballs are also possibly remnants of material ejected during the star’s last death throes. James Webb sees what others can’t. James Webb has taken the most precise photo ever taken around Tc1. But, also, thanks to his spectroscopic skillshas studied the composition of all that material ejected by the dying star, including buckyballs. The result, as explained in a statement the authors of the study themselves, is an open window to stellar evolution. Many half-baked studies. There are currently several studies underway aimed at explaining all the new findings around the Tc1 nebula. For now, this discovery has led to tracing the chemistry of carbon, explaining mysterious signals and understanding how organic materials change in extreme environments. In addition, it is a discovery that has challenged traditional views on space chemistry and offered clues about how life may have begun. Turning to the amateur eye. Something curious about the photo that has just been published is that it has not been processed by the scientists who took the images. The lead author of the research, Jan Cami, contacted Katelyn Beecroft, a high school teacher who frequently took her students on field trips to the observatory at the University of Western Ontario. I knew that the teacher is a great fan of astronomy and astrophotography and that she was really good at processing raw images taken by telescopes and enhancing even the most subtle structures that appear in them. He was certainly not wrong to ask for help, as Beercroft’s work has been commendable. Now we just have to understand the reasons for all these new findings. We already have the question, literally. We are missing the answers. Image | Katelyn Beecroft/NASA / ESA / CSA / Western University, J. Cami In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

turning the “sea of ​​death” into a carbon sink

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For decades, the Taklamakan desertin the Chinese region of Xinjiang, has had a nickname quite eloquent: “the sea of ​​death.” And it is no wonder, since it is the second largest mobile dune desert in the world and a place where, historically, whoever enters does not usually leave. But faced with this major problem with sand for the surrounding areas, China decided to find a solution. The solution. China since 1978 has been waging an ecological engineering war against sand with a very specific weapon: the Three North Shelter Belt Programbetter known as the Great Green Wall. A name that seems to come out of Game of Thrones, but its objective is to stop erosion and sandstorms. But a new massive study published in PNAS has just revealed an unexpected and monumental side effect: human intervention has turned the edges of one of the driest places on Earth into an active carbon sink. The data. The study has focused on 25 years of data obtained through field work and also with satellites. What the team has found on the margins of the Taklamakan is what they call a “cold spot” of carbon dioxide. This means that in reforested areas the concentration of CO₂ is between 1 and 2 parts per million smaller than in the surrounding environment. And although it may not seem like much, in climatology it is an outrage. The trend in this case is quite clear, since The vegetation cover is increasing every yearand there is also a tendency for soil and plants to be “eating” more carbon than they are emitting. How is it possible? The million-dollar question here is pretty clear: how do you keep 66 billion trees alive in a place where it barely rains? The answer lies in water management technology and species selection. In this case, the project does not focus on planting oaks or pines, but is based on Extremophilous species like him Tamarixhe Haloxylon and the Euphrates poplar, which are plants evolutionarily designed to survive on very little. But the technological key has been the use of drip risk with saline water. Origin of water. China discovered that under the Taklamakan there are immense aquifers, but they are too saline for traditional agriculture. However, these “halophytic” plants can tolerate it, so it seemed like it was done on purpose. That is why groundwater is used to irrigate the protective strips that exist, especially around the famous tarim desert highway. The result with this is that soil moisture drops drastically between waterings, but the plants survive. And, although the salinity of the superficial soil increases, studies indicate that it is manageable in the long term and does not salinize the deep layers. This has made it possible to complete in 2024 a “green belt” of 3,046 kilometers that encloses the desert, stabilizing dunes that previously moved meters each year. Its stability. Unlike the Great Green Wall attempts in the Sahara, which have suffered from political instability and a lack of continued funding, the Chinese project has maintained its course since 1978. This continuity has allowed a “40-year experiment” that is now bearing fruit with important conclusions. The Chinese authorities themselves cite that national forest coverage has gone from 10% in 1949 to 25% today, thanks in large part to this project. As a result, in places like Maigaiti in Xinjiang, sandstorm days have dropped from 150 a year to fewer than 50. It is not the panacea. The source article warns of the limitations of this project: photosynthesis and carbon sequestration are strongly correlated with seasonal precipitation. This means that at least 16 liters of rainfall per month is needed in high season to maximize its effect. But behind it is climate change that is drastically altering rainfall patterns in Central Asia, which could weaken the carbon sink. Although what is happening in Taklamakan is causing a paradigm shift, since now where we see reforestation of deserts, we also see a way to cool our planet by reducing the concentration of CO₂. Images | Wikipedia Jasmine Milton In Xataka | Someone has counted each and every tree in China. Because? Well because now it is possible

is already manufacturing the “Formula 1” of carbon fibers

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Carbon fiber is a material widely used in industry, from aeronautics to motorsports to wind turbine blades or bicycle frames. But there are fibers and fibers: While the industry standard is the T300 and T700, there are high-performance ones like the T800 or T1000. If we talk about the best and the most advanced, the high-performance aerospace grade T1100 comes into the picture. Of course, it was only manufactured in two countries: Japan or the United States. China is about to change that. An industry located in two countries. More specifically, in the T1100 producing industry, the Japanese Toray Industries It is the absolute reference (they invented that nomenclature). Then there is Hexcel in the United States, with its counterpart the HexTow IM10. In the United States there is also a Toray plant in Alabama, which the Japanese company advertisement back in 2022 with one goal: to meet the demand of the US defense sector. That’s if we talk about industrial scale, because in the laboratory Russia, South Korea wave India They are making their first steps. And of course, China. China makes a virtue of necessity. The Asian giant has achieved a milestone: going from the laboratory to the production plant with a 95% success rate in the city of Langfang, according to CGTN. They explain that, to ensure stable production, Shenzhen University worked hand in hand with the Changsheng Technology company since 2023. Why is it important. To begin with, because you can produce small laboratory samples, but the difficult thing is to scale to industrial volumes. This is what happens with a good part of the promising materials. But by combining state capital, university laboratory and factory research side by side, China has achieved a brutal synergy in the development of new materials: CGTN mentions expressly advances every 3 or 4 months and more than 30 rounds of iteration examining hundreds of factors to eliminate defects and reach mass production. The fact in itself is a milestone, but what is truly important is the consequence: technological independence. Once launched, China’s aerospace and defense programs will no longer be limited by the supply of this carbon fiber from abroad. T1100 carbon fiber is strategic. It is the material strongest structural (in strength-to-weight ratio) and lightest that humans can produce on a scale: it has a tensile strength of 7,000 MPa and a thickness of just five micrometers. It is seven times stronger than steel while weighing only a quarter as much, it synthesizes a scientist from Shenzhen University for CGTN. And it is essential for the manufacture of fighter aircraft, satellites, rockets and civil aircraft. It is, therefore, a strategic and sensitive material due to its dual civil and military use. For this reason, Japan and the United States have strict export controls. That is, if you want T1100 grade carbon fiber to cover your fighters, for example, you have to check out if everything goes well, because obviously such a strategic material is subject to geopolitical diplomacy. This point is important because How about GPUs?the United States may block its sale to China. And in fact, does it. Also Japan, via Wassenaar Agreement. In perspective. Toray launched the T300 in 1971quickly making this carbon fiber the industry standard. Forty-three years later, the Japanese company announced the T1100 in 2014. China, on the other hand, had to wait until 2008 to have his own T300, but he has stepped on the accelerator and in just 18 years he has caught up. In Xataka | Xi Jinping’s “made in China 2025” plan is becoming a reality: this is how he is conquering the key technologies of the future In Xataka | China has a metamaterial capable of making its fighters invisible. “It is the key to winning future wars” Cover | CGTN

We are clogging the ocean’s carbon toilet and it is something that is only going to cause us problems

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The ocean right now is acting as a big ‘carbon toilet’. An essential natural system that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locks him in the deep sea, helping regulate global climate. However, the recent heat waves we have experienced at sea are altering this critical process, which could have serious consequences for the climate of the entire planet. The ‘carbon toilet’. On the surface of the ocean we can now find organisms called phytoplanktonwhich have the ability to absorb CO₂ and produce oxygen through a simple photosynthesis mechanism with the help of sunlight. The problem is that we live in a life cycle that constantly advances, and that is why these organisms are food for small marine animals. called zooplanktonwhich generate feces in the form of small pellets that they sink to the seabed. This phenomenon, called the “biological carbon pump,” transports carbon from the atmosphere to the bottom of the sea, where it can remain isolated for centuries. In this way, the seabed can be seen as a large ‘cemetery’ of CO₂ stored in the feces of these animals. Something that in the long term is helping us clean the atmosphere and mitigate global warming. Heat waves. In the Pacific Northwest, two major episodes of marine heat waves that occurred in the periods 2013-2015 and 2019-2020 are changing everything. Temperature increases drastically altered the composition of phytoplankton and zooplankton, generating a “clogging” effect on the carbon toilet we have in the ocean. The lack of deep mixing and nutrients, caused by warming and stratification of the water, favored smaller species that produce feces that tend to float rather than sink, slowing the transport of carbon to the depths. A new layer. If the feces float, this simply means that the organic carbon now accumulates in the superficial layers of the water instead of reaching the deep areas where it was sequestered. This is also added to a greater bacterial proliferation in warm waters that decomposed more organic matter, releasing CO₂ again into the water and subsequently into the atmosphere itself. This is something that weakens the role of ‘buffer’ to try to compensate for the concentration of CO₂ in our atmosphere. Consequences. These changes not only affect the carbon cycle, but also the very base of the marine food chain. The decline in large phytoplankton reduces oxygen production and limits the feeding of larger marine species, including whales and commercial fish relevant to humanity. Zooplanktons are also responding to warming with changes in size and distribution, further impacting the efficiency of the carbon cycle since the smaller their size, the less CO2 they will capture and the less O2 they will produce. How it was done. In order to draw these conclusions, the research was based on a decade of data that was obtained through Argo biogeochemical floats. These are autonomous devices that have the ability to explore the ocean layers by measuring chemical and biological parameters without the need for constant human presence. This has allowed changes in marine ecosystems to be monitored in detail during extreme events, revealing hitherto invisible patterns and providing an essential tool for future studies and mitigation strategies. The future. These episodes of marine heat waves are increasingly frequent in our oceans due to global warming, as we are also experiencing in Spain. This means that if greenhouse gas emissions are not quickly reduced, the ocean could lose much of its ability to absorb atmospheric carbon. In Xataka | The question is not when it will stop raining, the question is how much more water will fall this fall

Investing in carbon capture instead of renewable energy is to throw money

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The fight against climate change is fundamentally based on reducing the amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One of the most direct solutions is carbon capture: extract the co₂ from industrial fireplaces or ambient air. So why don’t you finish taking off in front of renewables? Short. Carbon capture technologies are equipment that is placed in industries or outdoors to eliminate pollution without modifying the source. Although it sounds promising, A recent Stanford study It shows that carbon capture is in the long run much more expensive and less effective than direct transition to renewable energy. In addition to improving air quality and stopping climate change, for most countries of the world, electrifying the industry and obtain Energy, compared to a total bet for carbon capture that maintained the consumption of fossil fuels. The study. The researchers compared two extreme scenarios: a world that bets 100% for renewable energies and electrification; and a world that continues to burn fossil fuels, but tries to reduce its impact with carbon capture and improvements in energy efficiency. In contrast to intuition, the most profitable option is by far completely replacing fossil fuels by sources such as wind, sun, geothermia and hydroelectric energy. Because They directly eliminate the use of fuelswhich is the main source of pollutants in the air, and because they reduce energy demand instead of continuing to increase it. More profitable. Clean sources and electrification would not only directly reduce carbon dioxide, avoiding five million deaths a year caused by pollution. Since carbon capture consumes energy, the first scenario would also involve economic savings compared to the other scenario, reducing energy consumption by 54% and energy costs by 60%. The key is the opportunity cost. Using renewable energy to feed carbon capture systems prevents those same energies from being used to replace polluting sources. “If you spend a dollar in carbon capture instead of renewables, you are increasing carbon dioxide, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines and total social costs,” Explains the main author of the studyMark Jacobson. Conclusion. What the study points out is that, although carbon capture may seem an attractive technical solution, in practice it maintains the inefficient and polluting infrastructure of combustion. How to try to empty a bathtub without closing the tap. The substantive problem is not solved: the use of fossil fuels. The researchers conclude that, to face the climatic crisis effectively, it is much more beneficial to abandon the idea of ​​cleaning the air after polluting and betting on a total transformation towards renewable energies. The evidence says that investing in clean energy is not only cheaper, but also the safest option for the environment and global health. Image | Pixabay In Xataka | The big business in which CO2 is becoming captured and burying it underground

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