Light Weight! No Matter What the Costs? Plant Fibres for Light Weight Automotive Applications

Lightweight has become one of the key words in automotive applications. The reason for this concerns the debate about the level of fuel consumption that has been triggered by discussions of CO(2)-emissions and effects of man-made climate changes. The petrol consumption of cars is influenced by the engine itself, aerodynamics of the chassis and rolling friction. The last mentioned factor arises from a combination of tyres and weight-related factors. These are the reasons why lighter weight is becoming increasingly more important. However production of established and often mentioned lightweight materials such as Aluminium and Carbon Fibres is known to be energy intensive. Hence substitution is reasonable from the ecological point of view, if additional energy inputs affiliated with light weight manufacturing are lower than savings during utilisation. On this account the potential for the use of plant fibres were analysed. A review of literature data on energy inputs related to the production of common light weight materials were compared with energy inputs of plant fibre production. This information was calculated from production data in this study. Additionally the mechanical properties that are the subject of recent studies and publications were also considered. Finally the results were compared to show the potential savings.