The bioeconomy at work: flexible bioplastics
Develop a plastic that can withstand high temperatures, that is flexible and that can be bended 10,000 times without showing any cracking. Not an easy task. Now add the following command: don't use any petroleum in the process, because petroleum is expensive, it doesn't bio-degrade, it contributes to climate change and it pollutes the oceans and enters the food chain.
Well, Japanese engineers succeeded in the task. Fujitsu has developed a bioplastic based on Arkema’s Rilsan biopolyamide material that can withstand repeated bending. The Japanese teletronics group said it is considering using the new bioplastic for small components in notebook PCs and mobile phones, such as connector covers.
Fujitsu has been a pioneer in developing and using bioplastics in applications such as the housing of notebooks made from a blend of around 50% PLA (polylactic acid, the lactate of which is derived from starch obtained from for example corn or cassava) with an amorphous plastic. Despite this earlier project, it said it wanted a new bio-based polymer with a higher bio-content that features superior flexibility and is suitable for mass-production.
Fujitsu worked with Arkema in developing the new bioplastic that has as its principal component Rilsan PA-11, which is derived from castor oil. This plant oil is made from the beans of the Ricinus communis plant [crop file], a shrub grown mainly in Brazil, China and India but originating in East Africa:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: bioplastic :: biopolymer :: ricinus communis :: castor oil :: biodegradable :: bioeconomy ::
Castor oil has an unusual composition and chemistry, which makes it quite valuable. Ninety percent of fatty acids in castor oil are ricinoleic acid. Castor oil and its derivatives already have found applications in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, pharmaceuticals and perfumes.
The new highly flexible, heat tolerant plastic was made by “weakening the interaction of the chain molecule in PA-11 and relaxing the stereo-regularity of their organization, the resulting new material has sufficient flexibility to withstand repeated bending without causing the whitening that often occurs when such materials are strained.”
Fujitsu has created a prototype notebook PC-cover whose components now have a very high bio-content of 60-80%. “Even after adding high-density fillers to increase strength, the polymer maintains good impact-resistance and thus it is hoped that the material could eventually be used in PC chasses and other larger components,” it said.
The company plans to continue research into castor oil-based plastics (as well as PLA) and is aiming to manufacture small components for notebook PCs and mobile phones by 2008. Its research will also focus on use of the new bioplastic in larger components.
Article continues
Well, Japanese engineers succeeded in the task. Fujitsu has developed a bioplastic based on Arkema’s Rilsan biopolyamide material that can withstand repeated bending. The Japanese teletronics group said it is considering using the new bioplastic for small components in notebook PCs and mobile phones, such as connector covers.
Fujitsu has been a pioneer in developing and using bioplastics in applications such as the housing of notebooks made from a blend of around 50% PLA (polylactic acid, the lactate of which is derived from starch obtained from for example corn or cassava) with an amorphous plastic. Despite this earlier project, it said it wanted a new bio-based polymer with a higher bio-content that features superior flexibility and is suitable for mass-production.
Fujitsu worked with Arkema in developing the new bioplastic that has as its principal component Rilsan PA-11, which is derived from castor oil. This plant oil is made from the beans of the Ricinus communis plant [crop file], a shrub grown mainly in Brazil, China and India but originating in East Africa:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: bioplastic :: biopolymer :: ricinus communis :: castor oil :: biodegradable :: bioeconomy ::
Castor oil has an unusual composition and chemistry, which makes it quite valuable. Ninety percent of fatty acids in castor oil are ricinoleic acid. Castor oil and its derivatives already have found applications in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, pharmaceuticals and perfumes.
The new highly flexible, heat tolerant plastic was made by “weakening the interaction of the chain molecule in PA-11 and relaxing the stereo-regularity of their organization, the resulting new material has sufficient flexibility to withstand repeated bending without causing the whitening that often occurs when such materials are strained.”
Fujitsu has created a prototype notebook PC-cover whose components now have a very high bio-content of 60-80%. “Even after adding high-density fillers to increase strength, the polymer maintains good impact-resistance and thus it is hoped that the material could eventually be used in PC chasses and other larger components,” it said.
The company plans to continue research into castor oil-based plastics (as well as PLA) and is aiming to manufacture small components for notebook PCs and mobile phones by 2008. Its research will also focus on use of the new bioplastic in larger components.
Article continues
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Why electric cars and plug-in hybrids mean a boost to bioenergy
French automaker Renault announced yesterday that it will roll out an electric vehicle in 2010 aimed mainly at European fleet markets. The automaker said in a statement that "the project has reached an advanced stage" and that "It is already working on all the future vehicle's components."
The company follows in the footsteps of Nissan Motor, which earlier said it would bring an all electric car to market before the end of the decade. Besides this project, Nissan has also launched a series of programs aimed at speeding up the introduction of 'plug-in hybrids'. GM and Mitsubishi are going electric too, as are a whole series of small manufacturers who are producing electric specialty vehicles, such as light-duty vans, urban mini-cars or heavy-duty trucks.
Electricity, an energy carrier
Despite marketeers' insistence, none of these vehicles are "zero emissions" per se, for the obvious reason that electricity -- just like hydrogen -- is merely an energy carrier, not an energy source. You need a primary energy source to produce the electricity these vehicles' batteries will consume. At the 'tailpipe', electric cars are clean, but this doesn't hide the smokestacks that pump out CO2 at the point where the electricity they use is generated.
So where will the power for these plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars come from? If it is generated from fossil fuels, these vehicles would be very dirty and they would contribute massively to dangerous climate change. This is a real risk. But luckily, we have renewables - wind, solar and bioenergy - which offer the alternative. The question then becomes: which of these clean primary energy sources is most viable over the long-term?
Biomass, fuel of the future
Renault, for one, considers bioenergy to be the most versatile, most competitive and most universally applicable source for power generation (click image). Biomass is solar energy converted into plant matter that can be transported, distributed and managed in a flexible manner:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: renewables :: emissions :: electric cars :: hydrogen :: bioenergy trade :: developing world
Unlike photovoltaic and wind power, biomass can be used everywhere and 24 hours a day. A staggering diversity of energy crops exists that can be used to grow biomass adapted to local agro-ecologic circumstances: from drought-tolerant perennial crops in semi-deserts and grass species in the subtropics, to trees in peri-arctic environments.
The electric car implies a boost to solid biomass. Many studies and analysts have indicated that it is more efficient to use biomass to generate power in highly optimal plants (such as combined heat-and-power plants with efficiencies of up to 90%) than to transform this biomass into liquid fuels for use in inefficient internal combustion engines. A German scientist working for the IEA's Bioenergy taskforce on Biomass Combustion even calls first generation biodiesel 'economic nonsense' [*German]; better use the land where rapeseed or soybeans grow, to cultivate solid biomass crops for electricity.
Of course, ordinary diesel and gasoline ICE vehicles will dominate the car fleets of this world for a very long time, which is why liquid biofuels will be produced on a vast scale.
Over the very long term and only if electric cars were to capture a huge market share, would solid biomass as an energy source for transport take over from liquid transport biofuels.
Final blow to the hydrogen economy?
But the increased attention for electric cars may also signal the final blow to the much hyped 'hydrogen economy'. Let us compare the electric future with the hydrogen future. Which one would be most efficient and cost-effective? We can do this in a systematic manner by looking at two phases: a first phase aptly called the "well-to-tank" phase, which analyses how much energy, CO2 emissions and money goes into transforming the primary energy source into hydrogen or electricity, and how much it takes to get this power to the "tank" of the vehicle (to its fuel cells, ICE or its batteries, respectively). In a second phase, one looks at the "tank-to-wheel" efficiency and costs. Which technology is most efficient in transforming the hydrogen/electricity into traction? Fuel-cells, batteries or hydrogen ICEs?
Answers to these questions can be found in detailed studies, and they all seem to point at the fact that hydrogen production (well-to-tank) and its use in fuel cells (tank-to-wheel), is not really more efficient than other fuel production and utilisation paths (such as biomass-to-electricity for use in battery electric vehicles) (see a recent well-to-wheel study made by the EU, which we referred to earlier).
The main reason why hydrogen is such an unfeasible option for the future, is that it has the disadvantage that the gas is costly to produce, difficult to store and not easy to transport or distribute. The hydrogen economy requires the construction of an entirely new, trillion-dollar infrastructure consisting of pipelines, storage facilities and special hydrogen stations where end users can refill their gas-tanks. This may take ages to build. The electric infrastructure on the contrary already exists. To function as the power instructure for transport, all it needs is some grid-extension and the construction of public recharging outlets.
Trading biomass
The advantage of biomass as the primary energy source for electricity generation is the fact that it can be traded internationally, unlike photovoltaic and wind-power which are locally rooted and can be used economically only under optimal conditions (strong winds in specific locations or ample sunshine). If you want to transport solar energy over long distances, you can only do it by embedding it in biomass; that way, you can ship it over oceans to markets where it fetches the best price. This is impossible with electricity derived from wind or photovoltaics.
The IEA Bioenergy Task 40 group, which analyses sustainable international biomass trade, has carried out many studies which show that it is cost-effective to grow biomass in the tropics, where ample land, sunshine and water are available, and to transport it over long distances to markets. The energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions balance of such long-distance biomass trade remains very favorable (see the IEA Task 40 studies on International bioenergy transport costs and energy balance).
In this sense, the development of electric cars would once again mean a boost to the bioenergy industry in developing countries. It doesn't really matter in which form these regions' biomass potentials come to market (liquid biofuels for ICEs, or liquid and solid biomass for the production of electricity for battery cars), the main point is that they have a competitive advantage over biomass producers in the North.
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 4:37 PM 0 comments links to this post