NATURAL FIBRES AND FILLERS | REINFORCEMENT


Renewing interest in natural composites


Plant-based natural fibres and fillers are finding renewed appeal as users demand more sustainable — and often lighter — plastics compounds. Jennifer Markarian reports


Natural or renewable plant-based fibres and fillers have been an option for polymer compounds almost from the dawn of the plastics industry, but the recent focus on reducing carbon footprint is drawing new attention to them. And while, in some cases, the plant-based materials available to date have lacked the mechanical properties to directly replace glass fibre reinforcement, formulators have found many ways to compensate, whether that be by using them in combination with glass or by employing new methods to improve the basic properties of the plant-based material. The automotive sector has for many years been at


the forefront of work to incorporate natural materials and continues to push for increasing use of sustain- able content while maintaining performance. Alper Kiziltas, Technical Expert at Ford, says that several market, policy, and technical factors are coming together to make natural fibres a more attractive option for automotive applications. These include changes in consumer behaviour, current policy frameworks, increasing use of plastics in automo-


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biles, supply-chain concerns for glass fibre, and R&D innovations coming from natural fibre suppliers. “It is becoming a core business strategy for the automotive industry to deal with a future of constrained resources,” says Kiziltas. “The use of natural fibres improves the environmental sustain- ability of our company. Based on our internal studies and third-party data, there are definitely LCA [life-cycle assessment] benefits versus inor- ganic fillers and fibres. Use of these materials is becoming more widespread.” Kiziltas points out that the Sustainability and


Emerging Materials Group at Ford has performed sustainable composites research since 2000, resulting in use of a wide range of renewable materials, including kenaf, rice hulls, and cellulose. Some are more ‘obvious’ candidates than others; recent Ford experiments have shown that coffee chaff, after a biocarbonisation process, can replace talc in PP compounds. The coffee chaff experiment was undertaken as a way to use agricultural waste to create a sustainable


Main image: Ford is a leader in the develop- ment of natural materials for production of automotive parts, trialling the use of coffee chaff to reinforce headlamp housings for the Lincoln Continental


May 2022 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 15


IMAGE: FORD MOTOR COMPANY


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