HEMP, FLAX COULD BE USED TO BUILD YOUR NEXT VEHICLE

Compounds From Crops On Tap To Replace Plastics

Auto manufacturers could be just three years away from replacing some
of the plastics used in cars with compounds made from hemp, canola
oil and flax fibres, says one of Canada's top auto engineers.

And the changes could significantly reduce dependence on oil, Peter
Frise said Thursday.

Research into using crops for manufacturing has reached a tipping
point, he said.

"The natural materials industry is sort of where the steel industry
was in 1910," he told an audience of about 150 people on Parliament Hill.

Frise, a professor at the University of Windsor, is head of Auto 21,
a research group that brings together more than 200 of the country's
senior scientists.

He said using natural compounds to replace plastic will help make
cars greener in two ways.

"Saving one kilogram of weight on a car saves 17 kilograms of carbon
dioxide emissions over the life of that car. And the beauty of that
is that it doesn't depend on how the car burns fuel."

The new organic compounds would also help automakers reduce the
amount of oil they use in manufacturing.

Oil is a key component in making plastic compounds, but adding
natural materials to the mix means less oil is needed to make parts
such as door insides, ceiling components and insulation.

Conservative MP Shawn Murphy said he was impressed with Frise's
research. "It is encouraging. We have to adapt to new realities."

Researchers at Auto 21 hope to be able to save 125,000 barrels of oil
in the production of a year's worth of cars by 2015, said Mohini
Sain, a colleague of Frise's working at the University of Toronto.

In that scenario, a quarter of all the plastic compounds in
Canadian-made cars would be manufactured using natural materials.
Sain said that given current trends, those aspirations are fairly realistic.

Some companies, such as Mercedes and Volvo, are already using natural
compounds in manufacturing, but only on select models.

Frise said the number of cars produced using the new technology
amounts to less than one per cent of the market. In three or four
years, he said, there'll be niche markets for the new technology and
soon after it should be standard.

Flax fibre compounds "can be as strong as most types of steel," said
Frise, even though the fibres have a diameter smaller than the
thickness of a fingernail.