Ford Researchers Look to Nature for Greener, Lighter Plastics
By Scott Doggett September 18, 2009
By Danny King, Contributor
Unlike many men, Dr. Debbie Mielewski (right) has no love or nostalgia for that "high school woodshop" smell. And that's a good thing.
The soy-based material that Mielewski, the technical leader of Ford Motor Co.'s Biomaterials and Plastics Research team, helped develop a few years ago as a supplement to the petroleum-based polyurethane was strong and pliable enough to be used in components such as car seats but also emitted what she described as a "woodshop" smell after being processed.
Still, the five-member Biomaterials team, which Mielewski started in 2001, eventually figured out a way to strip away the smell in time for the soy-based foam to be used in Ford Mustangs starting in August 2007.
"Our objective is to pass every requirement that exists for traditional material," Mielewski told Green Car Advisor. "We will either meet or beat that standard."
Since the first soy-foam installation two years ago, Ford has installed soy-based foam components in about 1.5 million vehicles, including Mustangs, Ford Focuses, Lincoln Navigators and Mercury Mariners. With soy-based material making up about 40 percent of the foam used in such items as head restraints and armrests, Ford saves about a pound of petroleum for each car.
The installations are the first stage of what appears to be a broader effort by Ford, the only major U.S. carmaker to avoid bankruptcy, to make its cars with less environmentally harmful materials such as petroleum and glass, carry less weight in plastics to improve fuel economy and take less time to decompose in landfill once the car's usable life is through.
More Natural Fibers
In addition to planning to expand its use of soy-based foam to components such as headliners and the more rigid damping material that's placed between the bumpers and the vehicle body, Ford is looking to use more natural fibers from wheat straw, hemp and sawgrass to replace glass-based fibers used in hard plastics for components such as seatbacks, trunk shells and underbodies.
The company is also looking at corn-based plastic, called polylactic acid (PLA), which use high-sugar items including sweet potatoes and sugar beets to make plastics that may be used in carpet fiber and protective car wrapping. PLAs decompose in landfill within 120 days, compared to as many as 1,000 years for traditional plastic.
Once fully developed, using PLAs and natural fibers is likely to be advantageous to using petroleum because wheat straw, sweet potatoes and like items are commodities that can be grown all over the world, Dr. Matt Zaluzec, manager of materials and processes at Ford, said in an interview with Green Car Advisor.
Tricky Business
Still, the effort is tricky because such natural products, when not developed properly, can swell or decompose when exposed to moisture and other elements, Mielewski said.
"Anything we're doing in biomaterials involves invention -- these materials don't exist," Zaluzec said. "I can't call up a plastic supplier and get these items."
Ford, which made 2.2 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in North America last year, doesn't disclose its annual investment in biomaterials research -- the Detroit News estimated Ford's entire research and development budget for 2007 at about $8 billion -- but Zaluzec said the automaker is boosting its biomaterials spending every year.
That investment is paying off in at least one area: lighter cars. Because each car has a few hundred pounds of plastics, the use of biomaterials may reduce a vehicle's weight by as much as 20 pounds, which improves gas mileage, Zaluzec said.
"Five years ago, no one would've been interested in weight reduction," Mielewski said. "Now, people are interested if you can save a half a pound."
Dedicated Scientists
Like the materials it develops, the Biomaterials and Plastics team is unusual itself because, in a male-dominated auto industry, all five members are women. Dr. Cynthia Flanigan, Laura Beyer, Mielewsky, Dr. Ellen Lee, and Angela Harris (pictured, left to right) not only have three PhDs and a master's degree between them, but also 10 children.
"I can't stress how much these women feel about the environment and want to leave the planet cleaner for their kids and their kids' kids," said Mielewski. "They're really excited to get into the laboratory and try something that hasn't been tried before."
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This is simply wonderful. I never thought I'd say this, but "Kudos Ford, keep up the good work!".
Sounds like Ford has a team of bright minds working to make their vehicles a little more environmentally sound. I like hearing that companies can find room in their budgets to be environmentally responsible. I'm no stranger to budget cuts, and it's easy for the big wigs to slash programs like this that don't immediately add to the bottom line. Props to them.
Wasn't it about ten years ago that Bill Ford Jr was preaching environmental responsibility, increased fuel economy, and reduced weight -- and being the lone green voice in the industry he was kind of viewed as eccentric? I imagine this biochem team was part of that vision. Bill gets my seal of approval.
I was in Dearborn a few weeks ago speaking with some Ford engineers about their work, and one of them said somewhat out of the blue, "Do you know about our 'bio babes'?" He was referring to these scientists, and his comment triggered a lively conversation. What caught my attention was the pride these engineers clearly took in what the women were doing. These scientists are very respected within Ford. --GotZip
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