Shanghai Petrochemical’s carbon fibre supports one of the world’s longest onshore wind turbine blades
Shanghai Petrochemical’s 48K large tow carbon fibre special material for wind power was used in the manufacturing of wind power blades by Sany Renewable Energy, a Sany Group division whose main business is the provision of wind energy solutions. The first batch of 131 meter long onshore wind blades has rolled off the production line.
This wind turbine blade uses an all-carbon pultruded main beam. By optimizing the combination of single and double webs in the main beam area, the rigidity and stability of the ultra-long blades are effectively improved. Its excellent mechanical properties highlight the significant advantages of large-tow carbon fibre special material for wind power in solving the problem of weight reduction and performance improvement of large-scale wind power blades, and its application prospects are very broad, according to Shanghai Petrochemical.
The blade is 131 meters long, equivalent to the height of a 45-story building. The diameter of the impeller is 270 meters and the sweep area is equivalent to eight football fields or 136 standard basketball courts.
To manufacture large-scale wind turbine blades, it is necessary to meet the mechanical performance requirements such as lightweight, high strength, and high rigidity of the blades. Traditional glass fibre materials reach the performance limit when the blade length exceeds 120 meters, while carbon fibre materials have successfully exceeded this limit, Shanghai Petrochemical underlines.
In the composite materials industry, carbon fibres with more than 48,000 carbon fibres per bundle (referred to as 48K) are usually called large-tow carbon fibres. Shanghai Petrochemical explains that the biggest advantage of 48K large tow carbon fibre is that under the same production conditions, it can not only improve the single-line production capacity and quality performance of carbon fibre, but also achieve low-cost production, thereby breaking the application limitations caused by the high price of carbon fibre.
Shanghai Petrochemical started trial production and verification of wind power main beams in 2022. In 2023, based on its previous technology accumulation, production exploration and market expansion, Shanghai Petrochemical has formed a product brand of 48K large tow carbon fibre special materials for wind power, and passed the formal verification of multi-branch leaf type.
As the wind power industry is facing unprecedented development opportunities, Shanghai Petrochemical will continue to leverage its advantages in the large-tow carbon fibre industry, actively explore the wind power market and carry out strategic cooperation with domestic wind power blade manufacturing companies.
Cover photo: Shanghai Petrochemical