Can Carbon Fiber Composites Be the Future Material for Shipping Containers?

Media informs me that current carbon fiber demand much exceeds manufactured supply. If that is so, shipping boxes would be far down the list.

 

Carbon can crack.
Those containers are abused (for lack of a better word).

Good idea in regards to weight savings and rust prevention.
But I don't this is valid without my getting more information.

 

Carbon fiber (at least as now made) is also very sensitive to ultraviolet light. A serious need to paint the 'boxes' and keep up with them getting bumped.

Perhaps we have snuffed this idea adequately on first principles. But keep looking, O Tideland Prius

 

flammability?

 

Yeah, flammable, but truce, OK? This is a dandy material for several high-value-added applications. Big boxes don't seem to be one, but I don't want to destroy an industry here

Actually the linked article mentions air freight containers and that might be a better 'fit' for several reasons.

I did some fast, potentially accurate math. A Panamax cargo ship may itself weigh 50,000 tons, carry 50,000 tons of cargo contained within 10,000 tons of steel boxes. Thus the boxes are 9% of the floated weight which would seem to place a low limit on fuel-reductions.

 

It is the resin holding the carbon fiber together that has the issue with UV light.

 

What about when the boxes get to old to use... right now they can and do recycle the aluminum containers, as well as the steel ones.

I thought carbon fiber imbedded in resin wasn't recyclable... am I wrong about that???

 

It can be recycled.
You heat it up until the resin or plastic melts and recover the fibers.
Right now, there isn't enough CF out there to make doing so worthwhile though.
Recycling metals will still be a better financial proposition.

 

Or just paint it. Got to do that for rust with steel containers already. But I think they already have additives for the resins and epoxies to improve the resistance.

For air freight, CF containers could be worth the cost. For other shipping paths, the CF container ability to withstand bumps needs to be also considered. CF is similar to fiberglass is that it doesn't bend like a metal on impact. Even if it looks ok after a bump, it might still be 'bruised' and damaged internally.

Thus containers get transferred to trains and trucks when the ship makes port.

 

Is this one of the reasons they are not in many cars?

 

I do not know.
Carbon fiber is strong, like spider-web strong but I'm thinking that containerized shipping requires a different kinda strength.
From a purely non-engineering point of view, I'm thinking that the containers on the bottom of the stack have different challenges than UV exposure.
I also like the rigidity of the steel containers.


People forget that even ships this size can get tossed about in a storm.

I remember the last time I was in the North Pacific (which wasn't that dang Placid!!!) we had to always be on the lookout for the tell-tale triangle shape of a shipping container that was mostly submerged after being wrenched from topside.
Fortunately, they usually make for a favorable radar target.

Carbon Fiber??
Maybe....but I'm thinking that metal is good for now.....even if the carbon ones would float for a longer period of time.

Shipping containers usually have a tare weight of about 5,000# (20') to 8,000# (40') and I can't get exact pricing info because the internet is awash with rednecks buying them used for storage and tornado shelters, and hippies buying them for tiny housing.
Big companies who buy lots of shipping containers get wholesale pricing and don't need to frequent Google for pricing info.
Since the market price for a decommissioned shipping container is around $2,000 I'm going to presume that people who buy them in bulk (punn almost unintended) would pay $15,000 to $20,000.

I'm thinking that a carbon-fiber unit wouldn't save enough in energy over its life cycle to be worth the higher buy-in price even if you could make one suitable for the task. Remember.....transport by ship is already fairly energy efficient....which is sort of the whole point of shipping.

Just my back-of-the-napkin thoughts.