Traditionally considered a coarse fibre, kenaf is finding its place in the automotive and electronics market thanks to its use as reinforcement in composites. Its combination with PLA, a bioplastic sourced from corn, may illustrate the new focus of materials’ development nowadays. 2009 has been declared by the FAO the International Year of Natural Fibres. This is post is the third in a series dedicated to natural fibres.

What is Kenaf?

Kenaf, or Hibiscus Cannabinus, belongs to the Malvacean family and producers are based around the globe, although India and China are the major producers. Often compared with jute and hemp, kenaf applications could be classified as it follows:

• traditional uses, low value: rope, twine, clothing, animal bedding and feed
• Innovative Applications, medium value: Paper, engineered wood, environmental mat, oil and liquid absorbent material
• Kenaf Oil: edible oil, can also be used in cosmetics, lubricants and production of biofuel
• Composite materials, high value: kenaf fibres can be used as filler or reinforcement, with either epoxy or thermoplastics

Apart from these applications kenaf also shares its condition as hardy plant with jute or hemp. Thanks to it, it requires little water, pesticides or fertilizers to grow, making it a truly environmental crop to grow.

Production

Samsung Cheil in Malaysia

Samsung Cheil, a Korean affiliated company of the Samsung Group, launched in August 2008 a kenaf centre for collection, processing, packaging and distribution of the fibre. Samsung Cheil has traditionally being involved in the textile industry, but has diversified its business to cover all types of materials and chemicals. The strategic importance of the Malaysian centre, which is a collaborative effort between Malaysia’s Symphony Advance Sdn Bhd (SASB) and Samsung Cheil, is that it aims at the development and commercialisation of kenaf/plastic composites. The initial target of 1,000 tonnes exported per month is expected to double once shipments to Japan begin. The added value of the kenaf fibre when used in composites may allow tobacco farmers to replace their crops with kenaf.

Kenaf Green Industries

Based in Israel, Kenaf Green Industries licenses its current knowledge in kenaf production, trasnformation and commercialisation, helping new kenaf producers to establish their business. Kenaf Green Industries started a pilot project in Ethiopia for Global Energy, which aims at setting up a kenaf project of 10.000 hectares as complimentary crop for an existing castor bean project.

Better Paper

According to Treehugger, and the US Department of Agriculture, kenaf improves yield and performance of trees to manufacture paper. Kenaf fibres have less ligning than wood pulp, hence easing processing. The use of kenaf fibres in paper also improves its properties, making it more resistant, whiter and easier to print. It is due to these properties that kenaf fibres are also used to improve the quality of recycled paper. Kenaf is not the only natural fibre competing to substitute trees in the making of paper. Other strong candidates are hemp, bamboo and sugar cane.

Vision paper is a tree-free paper producer in the US that uses kenaf for its production. Vision paper has been affected by the closure of paper mills in the US and it has been looking to purchase its own mill equipment since March 2008. This should allow the company to maintain the production of kenaf-based quality paper.

Composites

Toyota

Toyota has been researching the use of kenaf in automotive applications for almost a decade now. Toyota used kenaf as a door trim base material first in 2000, but as 2008 kenaf was being used for five components in a total of 27 car models, mainly high-end cars. Some of the early examples of parts where kenaf was used in Toyota models are listed below:

• 2000: Celsior door trim. Kenaf and polypropylene composite
• 2001: Brevis door trim. Kenaf and polypropylene composite
• 2003: Harrier door trim and seat back board. Kenaf and polypropylene composite
• 2003: Raum spare tyre cover. Kenaf and polylactic acid

In May 2008, Toyota entered a kenaf seed development agreement with the Indonesian Tobacco and Fiber Crops Research Institute to embark on a full-scale seed development program. Toyota’s target to make all interior parts from plant materials means that having inside knowledge on kenaf production has become more vital than ever.

NEC

The combination of PLA and kenaf fibres to create a biocomposite, as the one used to manufacture the spare tyre cover on the Raum model is a strong trend in the materials market. We have seen it not only in automotive, but also in electronic devices, like mobile casings composed of a bioplastic and a natural fibre as reinforcement, as in NEC Eco-Mobile. Below NEC definition of its Eco-Mobile:

A mobile telephone whose entire casing is made from a kenaf-fiber-reinforced bioplastic consisting of a corn-based polylactic acid to which kenaf fiber and NEC’s original additive have been added as reinforcing agents. The new bioplastic features better strength and heat resistance characteristics than previous bioplastics consisting only of polylactic acid and its production process halves the CO2 emissions of conventional oil-based plastics. This is the first time in the world such an environmentally sound material has been used for a mobile phone casing. The Eco-Mobile was launched on the market on March 10, 2006, by NTT DoCoMo under the commercial name “FOMA(R) N701iECO”.

Conclusion

Kenaf, like most other natural fibres, still holds unexploited potential as a modern material. Its use in combination with bioplastics could enhance materials’ properties, opening up new applications for both materials.

Related posts in mundomaterial:

2009 International Year of Natural Fibres

2009 International Year of Natural Fibres: Fique in Colombia

Renewably sourced polymer in automotive part

Other sources of information:

Samsung Cheil Kenaf Malaysian project: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=354548

Try Out the 5 Best Kinds of Tree-Free Paper: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/tree-free-paper.html

Composites with PLA used in automotive; http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/environment/recycle/design/recycle.html

Presentation on kenaf and automotive applicatiosn by Toyota: http://www.bc.bangor.ac.uk/suscomp/assets/pdf/car%20components.pdf

NEC Eco-Mobile: http://www.nec.co.jp/eco/en/annual2006/02/2-1.html

Photo: photo credit: MShades

DuPont/Denso bioplastic radiator

The part: automotive radiator end-tank

The material: nylon

The grade that made it: DuPont™ Zytel® 610

DuPont Renewably Sourced Materials

The launch of a bioplastic underhood car part is well framed within DuPont’s strategy towards better environmental practices, it is certainly not an isolated movement. Through an alliance with Tate & Lyle, of which I have already written here, DuPont can now commercialised several plastics with renewable content, as well as polyols. DuPont has a specific portal, Dupont Renewable Sourced Materials, which I recommend you visit for more info. I find that, unlike other competitors, DuPont is quite honest and straightforward in its statements. A clear example of its down to earth approach is their public definition of renewably sourced material:

DuPont™ Renewably Sourced™ Materials contain a minimum of 20% renewably sourced ingredients by weight

This may seem a simple, not so ambitious claim, but very few companies will dare to publish such a number. Even bioplastic producers that use both renewable and petrochemical feedstocks tend to be very secretive about their minimum renewable content. Also DuPont is telling us its minimum content, not launching a marketing campaign about the product with the highest renewable content within its portfolio. This is not exactly new business for DuPont, and its current portfolio of biosourced materials speaks for itself:

• Cerenol^TM Polyols
• Susterra^TM Propanediol
• Zemea^TM Propanediol
• Hytrel® RS Thermoplastic Elastomers
• Pro-Cote® Soy Polymers Selar® VP Breathable Resins
• Sorona® EP Thermoplastic Polymers
• Sorona® Polymers

DuPont and Denso

DuPont is considered a strong partner in automotive, due to their expertise in materials science. It has proven its capacity in innovation by developing projects with clients to improve products. Denso Corporation, which is a global supplier of automotive systems and components, has already collaborated with DuPont in other projects. A few years back, Denso and DuPont worked together in a programme in which a global team made and tested a prototype automotive radiator end tank using 100 percent glass-reinforced nylon recovered from post-consumer radiator end tanks. The Society of Automotive Engineering awarded this initiative in 2005 and it seems Denso and DuPont have been working since then on improving the radiator end tank.

Have a look at some of my other posts looking at the materials used in the automotive industry. You’ll find out that right now our car can be made of recycled plastic, bioplastic, plastic reinforced with natural fibres… It’s not like the plastic industry is not trying here!

Related Posts

ELV directive or car recycling

Plastics, natural fibres and cars

PDO: petrochemical or renewable

Renewable TPEs

Other sources of information

Denso Corporation

www.globaldenso.com

DuPont de Nemours

www.dupont.com

Plastic is essential in cars today, it’s used everywhere. I invite you to have a look at your car and try to guess which parts are made in plastic, apart from the terribly obvious ones. It is not easy, if you consider that around 20% in weight of a car manufactured today is plastic. The advantages that plastic offers are low weight, low cost and ease to mass produce parts. In fact, it is thanks to plastics that our average car consumes less, simply because they make it lighter.

Plastic was first used in car interior, in the dashboard, the foam of your seats, the driving wheel, etc. Today it is more difficult to say which parts are NOT plastic. Tubes, engine covers, lights, detectors and so many more parts are not built in a variety of plastics. I’d love to write more about automotive, like innovations in pneumatics or how polypropylene got to rule the inside of our cars. For now, I leave you with an example of silent innovation – because the final users don’t notice it andit does not affect their buying decision – present all over this industry, always fascinating to me.

Natural Fibres!?

A while ago I worked in a consulting job related to the use of renewable materials as fillers or reinforcement for plastic. For example, wood particles which were considered waste before can be blended with PVC or polyolefins to produce wood plastic composites, or WPC, used in construction. Fibres, unlike wood dust, offer improvements over the polymer matrix with which they are mixed. In Europe, the most commonly used natural fibre in industrial applications as a component of plastic composites is flax. European flax production plumbeted after the drastic movement of the textile industry towards Asia and Eastern Europe countries. European flax producers that have survived offer top quality products and retain the technical know how developed for years.

lino

For a flax fibre to be considered top quality it needs to be long and resistant, with some suppliers treating fibres to be flame retardant. Natural fibre composites are mainly used in the automotive sector, to produce parts like internal door pannels. It replaces thermoplastics or glass fibre composites. The critical advantages flax fibre composites offer are:

• Unlike glass fibre, flax fibre is cheap and safe to handle
• Parts manufactured with flax fibre composites have similar cost than those produced only with thermoplastic
• It is safer than thermoplastic, as in case of crash it does not break down with sharp edges, protecting passengers
• Oil based material is partially replaced by a renewable and sustainable material, which is produced in Europe

The polymer and the flax are thermally bonded together, at the same time that shape is given to the part. This method is also commonly known as compression moulding. A sandwich structure is the most common configuration, where a non woven mat of flax is the ham and polypropylene is the bread slices. Tier suppliers offering this type of product include Röchling Automotive and Lear Corporation.

Consider the fact that 1 in 5 cars produced in Europe have a part made with natural fibre composite. Now, can you tell if your car has one? I bet you can’t. The changes made by automotive OEMs with regards to materials used and the impact they have on the environmen are not usually included in their marketing campaigns. Natural fibre composites have gained their place in the market thanks to their excellent price quality ratio, improvement on the mechanical performance of parts and the strong will of flax producers to survive without the textile market.

source: www.freefoto.com

I have already discussed the WEEE directive, dealing with waste of electronic and electrical equipment, in my post on WEEE and RoHS. Today I shall talk about another waste directive, the one dealing with vehicles, commonly known as the ELV directive, or directive 2000/53/EC. Similarly to the WEEE directive, the ELV directive promotes waste reduction, sets progressive recovery and recycling targets and puts responsibility on vehicles producers. These are the recycling and recovering targets set for 2006 and 2015:

• 2006: 85% of reuse and recovery and 80% of reuse and recycling
• 2015: 95% of reuse and recovery and 85% of reuse and recycling

The unusually high targets were not chose at random. Before the introduction of the directive around 75% weight of a car was already being recycled, as the metal content is over 80%. This percentage tends to diminish in new cars, as more plastic alternatives are used. By increasing the percentage that needs to be recycled, the directive forces recyclers to treat other materials than metal.

The ELV directive, directive 2000/53/EC, is similar in its approach to the WEEE directive. It touches almost every aspect of the vehicle’s life and disposal. It places the responsability of waste upon the manufacturers, so it is their obligation to take the necessary steps to reduce waste production and finance collection systems. To this end they must reduce the use of hazardous substances and since 2003 vehicles must not contain mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium or lead. As for recycling, manufacturers must consider it right from the designing stage, as the directive dictates that dismantling, re-use, recovery and recycling must be facilitated. Basically, anything but ending up in landfill.

Before recycling a car, any hazardous waste must be removed to be treated separately. Car manufacturers must provide recyclers with appropriate instructions to do so. Treatment operations for depollution of end-of-life vehicles, as covered in the ELV directive, are as follows:

• removal of batteries and liquified gas tanks
• removal or neutralisation of potential explosive components, (e.g. air bags)
• removal and separate collection and storage of fuel, motor oil, transmission oil, gearbox oil, hydraulic oil, cooling liquids, antifreeze, brake fluids, air-conditioning system fluids and any other fluid contained in the end-of-life vehicle, unless they are necessary for the re-use of the parts concerned
• removal, as far as feasible, of all components identified as containing mercury

Up to now the vehicle was simply shredded after these operations. But the ELV directive also proposes another set of treatment operations to facilitate the recycling of other materials and components:

• removal of catalysts
• removal of metal components containing copper, aluminium and magnesium if these metals are not segregated in the shredding process
• removal of tyres and large plastic components (bumpers, dashboard, fluid containers, etc)
• removal of glass.

Plastics can be shredded with the metal parts and then segregated, or more accurately, both things at the same time, avoiding the need to remove the parts, which is always the most time consuming and therefore expensive step. The recycling of plastics becomes more cost competitive as newer cars have bigger plastic parts that are easily recovered, obtaining more weight with less effort. The automotive sector represents 8% of the plastics market, i.e. almost 4 million tonnes in 2006 according to PlasticsEurope. Sadly, that same year not even 10% of the plastic found in cars was recycled. This low percentage is even more poignant as vehicles are one of the few wastes that have had a working collecting system for years.

Anyone directly involved with recycling knows that finding a market for recycled materials can be the most difficult part of the business. This is the main reason, together with solvable technological problems, for the low recycling rates of plastic in vehicles. There would be more recycling when it becomes truly profitable, of that I’m sure. This is why the directive asks manufacturers to increase the amounts of recycled materials used in their cars, to create a demand for recyclates.

It would be great to hear from those of you that recycle cars, so that we could have first hand information on the business. In the meantime, try having a good look at your car and you will realise how much of it is not metal anymore (including the engine!)