Chapter Ten
New meaning for “Eat your vegetables?”
Vegetables and bio" fibers like kenaf, hemp, grass, corn straw, flax, jute, henequen, pineapple leaf and sisal can do a car good, too?
We know that vegetables help build strong bodies, but a car body? Yup, just when you thought you knew it all the car industry has found out that vegetable fiber helps reduce weight and strengthen components as compared to man" made glass fibers and petrochemicals derived from oil.
Surprisingly bio" composites have been around since the 1920s, when Henry Ford built prototype car components including dashboards, door panels and passenger compartment parts from hemp" derived plastics. Hemp" derived car parts send me back years ago to the movie Up in Smoke with Cheech and Chong.
Nissan’s all"electric Leaf is designed to take hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic bottles away from landfills. In fact, 60 percent of the plastic on the Leaf's interior is recycled material, at the end of the Leaf's lifespan, 99 percent of the 3375"pound vehicle weight is recyclable and can be transformed back into water bottles or other Leafs.
Motive Industry’s INC out of Canada has produced the Kestrel electric car, which doesn't use gas and has many parts and pieces made from advanced plant" based plastics. It also weighs in at a little less than 2,000 pounds. Nathan Armstrong, President of Motive, feels that they are onto something. "We know we are presenting unique solutions that will help solve many of the challenges facing the automotive industry, not only environmental but also logistical (as in supporting Canadian industry)."
On a technological side, using composite material (hemp) versus metal has many benefits including lighter weight, increased impact absorption and rust resistance.
"While a steel stamped vehicle will absorb impact by crumpling under pressure, a composite vehicle will absorb the energy, then return to its original shape," comments Armstrong.
Scientists say that bio" composites are, pound for pound, stronger, lighter and cheaper to produce than steel.
Small changes can make a huge difference. Ford is using 20% wheat straw bio" filler in the third row storage bins of its Flex wagon. Consider a plastic storage bin. By using wheat straw" reinforced plastic rather than 100" percent traditional petroleum products, it is estimated that petroleum use will be reduced, along with CO2 emissions.
This is just Ford's first application of this material.
Ford is already considering using the environmentally" friendly technology in the construction of center" console bins and trays, interior air registers, door trim panel components and armrest liners.
Ford’s sustainable materials portfolio also includes soy" based polyurethane seat cushions, seat backs and headliners; post" industrial recycled yarns for seat fabrics; and post" consumer recycled resins for underbody systems, such as the new engine cam cover on the 2010 Ford Escape’s 3.0"liter V6.
The most amazing example to date is a bio" composite race car developed by the University of Warwick in England. The ecoF3 is made from vegetables and runs on chocolate derived biofuels. That gives a whole new meaning to not eating your vegetables, along with the new business I want to start " a chocolate bar at every race track. After smelling the bio fuel, race fans will sublimely want chocolate.
So, when you buy your next car and the steering wheel is made out of carrots and you have broken down in the desert, can you eat your steering wheel to survive?
“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”