Abstract (300 words)

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The abstract should begin with a brief but precise statement of the problem or issue, followed by a
description of the research method and design, the major findings, and the conclusions reached.

Carbon fibre, having an excellent mechanical strength and low density, has enabled its adoption in
composites that have revolutionised a wide range of industries such as transportation, sporting
goods, defence, wind energy, and pressure vessels. Commercial carbon fibre today is mostly
manufactured from petroleum-based polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which makes the processing costly and
leaves a significant carbon footprint. Thus, the transition of carbon fibre production to a low-cost,
sustainable route via the utilization of renewable biomass is of utmost importance. Lignin is a
promising alternative precursor to PAN in this case as it is cheap, abundant in nature, and contains a
large amount of carbon; however, lignin varies greatly in its composition depending on the plant
species, maturity stage, and environmental conditions that makes it a challenging precursor to
handle. In this study, a method to successfully wet-spin lignin-based carbon fibre precursor on pilot-
scale has been developed, from sustainably sourced lignin that was isolated from oil palm empty
fruit brunch (OPEFB). The fibre development steps included the establishment of precursor dope
preparation method, filtration approach and up-scaling from lab-based to pilot plant scale at 1k tow
(1000 filaments). To this point, fibres from lignin blended with cellulose at 1:1 ratio have been
successfully spun in a continuous, pilot-scale process, giving carbon fibre of a diameter of 16 um, up
to a tensile strength of 613 MPa and a tensile modulus of 40 GPa. This study is a proof of concept
and a detailed insight into the large scale, low-cost carbon fibre processing techniques that could
pave the way for wider adoption of carbon-based material, although there are still many challenges
that lie ahead for the industrialization of lignin as an established CF precursor, notably in the carbon
fibre performance, that remains to be improved in future work.