Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is the main raw material employed in the acrylic and carbon fibers (CFs) industries. It allows the production of high modulus CFs, with excellent properties for high performance, high strength, and lightweight composite materials. The production process involves copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) with other comonomers, followed by separation and drying of the polymers, its dissolution (forming the dope) and spinning. The comonomers typically used are carboxylic acids (acrylic acid, methacrylic acid and itaconic acid), amides and esters. Besides being expensive, PAN-based CFs are derived from petrochemical sources. Green technologies to achieve the highly demanded CFs from bio-based renewable starting materials are of critical relevance, since they are subjected to lower environmental impact.

Lignin is one of the most abundant biopolymers in lignocellulosic biomass. In the industry it is present as by-product of the pulp and paper industry, and cellulosic ethanol production. However, it is being treated as waste or used in low-value applications such as fuels. On the other hand, bio-acrylonitrile (bio-AN) industrial production, with high yields, is at its infancy, and there is a need for the starting of the first trials for CFs precursor production, to check whether and how bio-AN impurities from biomass affect the properties of the CFs compared to the industry standard.

The BioCFiber project targets the replacement of petroleum-based CFs by bio-based CFs. To address the challenge of the BioCFiber project, a new approach will be followed giving rise to high quality, bio-resourced CFs precursors made from new lignin-derived copolymers, obtained via free and controlled radical polymerization.