http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10912 Planet Ark Oh man, that car is really smoking!
AUSTRALIA: May 22, 2001 SYDNEY - Hey dude, check out my hemp mobile! Australian researchers believe that within a decade, cars could be made of hemp - the cannabis plant - as backyards and dumps overflow with rusty metal hulks and vehicle makers turn to biodegradable materials for car bodies. Alan Crosky, of the University of New South Wales' Material Science and Engineering School, said yesterday that hemp had turned out to be the most viable material, beating coconuts and banana trees in preliminary studies. "Disposal of old cars is a growing problem. It is only a matter of time before the expense of disposal becomes the owner's responsibility and the consumer is forced to pay the full life-cycle costs of their car," Crosky said. "Because this will increase the cost of cars, developing an environmentally friendly material that can be used to make the bodies of cars is now a viable option," he said. Crosky told Reuters he had begun researching hemp to find ways of making sure it does not become brittle and could protect the passengers of a vehicle during an accident. He said hemp - made from the cannabis plant but containing only minute amounts of the narcotic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - was like fibreglass, but a natural product. "It's renewable, you don't have to put as much energy into making it, and best of all, burning it doesn't get off anymore carbon dioxide than it absorbed during growing, what we call CO2 neutral," Crosky said. Hemp is widely used in making textiles and rope. Research was at the preliminary stage but Crosky believed it would not be too long before hemp cars became a reality. "It might take a decade," he told Reuters. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE And on the other hand... http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10915 Planet Ark Magnesium use in cars could double in five years BELGIUM: May 22, 2001 BRUSSELS - Magnesium use in the manufacture of automobiles could double in the next five years as demand for lightweight, fuel-saving materials grows, a major industry conference heard yesterday. Friedrich Schumann, Director of Vehicle Research for Germany's Volkswagen Group, told the International Magnesium Association's (IMA) annual conference that during the 1990s magnesium had made ground against other aluminium, plastics and steel-based alloys. But if this growth was to continue more cooperation was needed between the magnesium industry and car makers, he said. "Only by adopting an integrated approach to construction methods, materials and processes can lightweight construction be achieved at competitive prices," he said. "While recognising that there is still some way to go before that integrated approach is achieved, we still view it as the key to greater use of magnesium in motor vehicles," he said. Schumann said the main areas of magnesium use were in the drive train and vehicle interior but new applications would arise in the next five years. "In the short term, the number of those applications will increase further, conceivably to double the present figure, and the first uses of magnesium in body components can be expected," he said, referring to a target of between 60 and 80 kg of metal per automobile. However, more research was needed into new alloys. A longer-term target of over 100 kg of magnesium per vehicle would not only depend on technological developments but also cooperation between the industry and users as well as successful cost reductions in the whole production chain. These cost reductions had to address primary metal production, component manufacturing, in-house recycling and a secondary material market, Schumann said. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
