It's the Trib again:
ENVIRONMENTALLY
FRIENDLY PLANT TO
BE USED IN FORD CARS
By Sallie L. Gaines
Tribune Staff Writer
January 19, 1999
The search for lighter, stronger, "greener"
has taken the auto industry to the rich
agricultural fields of the Rio Grande Valley.
Near Brownsville, Texas, farmers are
wrapping up the harvest of an obscure plant
called kenaf, which soon will be part of the
automobiles we buy. Kenaf, which
resembles a 14-foot-high cross between a
hibiscus and bamboo, yields tough fibers
that can be formed into lightweight, strong
products for a car's interior, such as trim
and door panels.
Kenaf has the added benefit of being
environmentally friendly, part of the reason
that the Visteon Automotive Systems unit of
Ford Motor Co. has joined forces with
Kafus Environmental Industries Ltd. to
develop marketable uses for the plant fiber.
Kafus plans to build a plant in Elkhart, Ind.,
to manufacture those products.
The Visteon-Kafus venture resulted from
serendipity as much as planning.
Visteon, which sells goods to 18
original-equipment manufacturers, including
all the major automakers, always is on the
lookout for ways to raise quality without
raising prices.
It also wants to achieve that while taking
less of a toll on the environment, whether by
making products from renewable resources
or making them recyclable.
"All of our OEMs are asking for
environmentally friendly products for their
vehicles," said Visteon spokeswoman
Cheryl Eberwein. "We're addressing what
they want."
Kafus, based in Vancouver, British
Columbia, is in the business of making
commodity products from renewable,
sustainable resources. One business unit
already is using part of the kenaf plant to
make cement-fiber board; products for
Visteon will be made from the plant's bark,
previously discarded.
"We take something that was going to be
thrown away and make it into a sustainable
industry," said David Agneta, president of
Kafus Bio-Composites Inc. of Dedham,
Mass., which is spearheading this project.
The two company goals made a natural fit,
said Donald Vonk, Visteon's strategic
business unit director for interior systems.
Visteon uses wood fiber in some products,
but many nations and consumer groups
object to wide-scale harvesting of trees,
because it takes too long for new ones to
grow. Visteon was on the lookout for an
alternative.
"We were on mutual paths, looking for
environmental opportunities and
opportunities for our products," Vonk said.
"Kafus was already working in that regard,
looking for alternatives to wood fiber from
trees."
Enter kenaf, a little-known plant that's been
around for centuries but is not common in
North America. Its outer fibers seem likely
to work just fine for Visteon's products,
with a strong environmental plus: It grows to
14 feet in just seven months, meaning a new
crop becomes available each year.
Another Kafus unit, Kenaf Industries of
South Texas, has about 2,500 acres
dedicated to the plant, and that number is
expected to grow to 20,000 acres by the
end of this year.
The Kafus factory in Elkhart will make mats
from the plant fiber, which Visteon will
blend with other products then blend and
harden it into the desired shape. The
blending process uses fewer resins than
alternative methods, such as fiber glass,
Vonk said. That's another plus because
many people have allergies to commonly
used resins, he noted.
"This is really a significant change
environmentally," Vonk said. "It's really a
continuing effort on our part to offer
environmentally friendly products."
Vonk said buyers likely will see cars with
the first kenaf-based parts in Europe in
mid-2000.
Visteon isn't doing all this just to prove it is
a tree-hugger, however; Vonk said
kenaf-based products will be competitive
price-wise, too. "It also has some product
advantages in terms of high-impact strength,
improved sound-deadening, lighter weight."
Agneta agreed. "No one will buy our
product just because it's green," he said. "It
(has to be) economically sound. But if it's
economically competitive and it's green. . .
."
And Kafus isn't putting all its money on
Visteon and the auto industry.
Agneta said the company sees applications
for kenaf in a variety of industries, including
manufactured housing, motor homes,
recreational vehicles, furniture and
packaging. But cars are the starting point --
and that road leads to Elkhart and the
50,000-square-foot plant Kafus hopes to
open before year-end.
"It's a great business climate there," Agneta
said. "It's the motor-home capital of
manufacturing. If you draw a big circle
around Elkhart, we're close to end-users."
chicagotribune.com |
