Mitsui to build carbon nanotube mass-output plant
Date: 28-Dec-01
Country: JAPAN
Carbon nanotubes, cylindrical structures about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair and made of carbon atoms, are expected to be used in such products as cars, flat televisions and fuel cells in the future.
"Our subsidiary Carbon Nanotech Research Institute (CNRI) has developed new mass-production technology that will allow us to set the selling price at one-tenth of the currently lowest price offered by another company," a Mitsui spokesman said.
In October, Nikkiso Co Ltd , Japan's largest maker of precision pumps, said its new method of nanotube production would reduce the selling price of nanotubes to less than 100 yen ($0.763) a gram, or 100,000 yen per kilo.
"We will set our selling price at less than 10,000 yen per kilo," the spokesman said.
CNRI, wholly owned by Mitsui, will build the plant in the Tokyo suburb of Akishima at a cost of nearly two billion yen.
In April, the plant will start producing 20-nanometre carbon nanotubes with an annual output of one tonne, increasing to a capacity of 120 tonnes in the future.
One nanometre is one billionth of a metre.
The 120-tonne capacity will be the largest at any facility in the world, the Mitsui spokesman said.
"We have already received inquiries from some major carmakers," the spokesman added.
Carbon nanotubes will enable carmakers to replace steel bodies with plastic, whose strength carbon nanotubes can increase, and that will improve car fuel-economy and reduce emissions, the spokesman said.
The material has a broad range of possible applications, including in fuel cells, wall-hanging flat televisions and components of batteries for use in artificial organs but its high costs have up to now prevented commercialisation.
Global demand for carbon nanotubes is estimated at four trillion yen in 2020.
Shares in Mitsui were up 3.66 percent at 623 yen as of 0149 GMT, outperforming the benchmark Nikkei average , which rose 0.27 percent.
