Automotive Biopolymers

José Rodilla, Senior Product Development Engineer with Faurecia - the world’s 6^th largest supplier to the auto industry with a turnover of €16 billion - described their development of “NAFI Lean”, a composite of 80%PP and 20% hemp intended to replace their P/E copolymer in cockpits, door panels, instrument panels etc.  It’s lower density and reduced thickness compared with P/E copolymer or GRP are the key benefits with reduced fuel consumption being the USP for the auto industry.

Short-cut hemp is compounded with PP to make chips for injection mouldings.  Their use provides:

  ·         25% weight savings.

  ·         20% LCA Savings (CO₂).

  ·         Processability on existing machinery with a 6% reduction in cycle time.

  ·         A step on the road to 100% bio-composites.

It is more expensive than P/E copolymer but currently perceived as the best compromise between quality and weight.  It is now used in the Peugeot 308.  3000 tonnes are produced in the EU and a further 10000 tpa planned for  Asia.

Faurecia is also developing its own 100% bio-based polymer “Biomat”,  for non-visible auto parts.  Biomat is 100% poly-butylsuccinate made from tapioca starch using monomer technology from BioAmber and polycondensation technology from Mitsubishi Chemicals.

Biodegradable Gas Barrier Films

Domenico de Angelis of Nippon Gohsei (Japan) believes their Nichigo G-Polymer™ (PVOH) makes a better gas barrier film than EVOH and in dry atmospheres it can be 50x better.  So for dry foods in controlled storage at humidities below 60% RH PVOH will outperform EVOH to an extent that downgaging  and cost saving is possible.  

PVOH gives films with glass-like transparency which biodegrade like cellulose and are therefore fully compostable.  The packaging film used PVOH as the middle layer of a sandwich with PLA as the outer layers.  There were problems with adhesion and these had been solved using a special tie resin.  The 3-layer film could also be ground and recycled as PLA; the PVOH being water soluble could be washed away. A typical construction would be 20 microns of G-Polymer inside  30micron layers of PLA each bonded to the G-Polymer with 10microns of adhesive to give an oxygen transmission rate of 0.02 ccs/square metre/day at 23C and 50%RH.

Nippon Gohsei make 70,000 tonnes/year of PVOH in Japan.  Nichigo G-Polymer™ is the world’s first amorphous PVOH and combines the strengths of regular PVOH and EVOH.