Bamboo, coffee chaff, rice hulls — oh my!

Novi, Mich. — What will they think of next?

I found myself thinking that after two presentations on emerging materials that are, or could potentially be, used in vehicles during the Plastics & Rubber in Automotive conference in January.

The two presenters were Alper Kiziltas, a research scientist at Ford Motor Co. and a familiar face if you've attended any auto-themed conferences organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers, and Kylee Guenther, CEO and co-founder of Pivot Materials LLC.

Let's start with Ford.

It wasn't the first time Kiziltas spoke to an audience about the growing number of materials — keyword: sustainable — that the automaker is pursuing. But tallying the list and taking a closer look shows how Ford has taken a "don't knock it until you've tried it" approach to its materials development.

The automaker is already using recycled plastic bottles to make floor carpeting and wheel liners in the Ford Transit and C-Max vehicles as well as in the Repreve fabric used in the F-150 pickup truck. Castor bean oil is used for the nylon fuel lines in most of its vehicles and for instrument panel soft-touch foams. And it's old news now that Ford has been using soy-based polyurethane foam in seat backs, cushions and head restraints in every North American-built vehicle, following the material's debut on the 2008 Mustang.

But those materials seem quite ordinary compared with others like coconut fibers, which are used to reinforce the plastic liners on certain Ford vehicles. Then there's rice hulls, a byproduct of rice farming and production, which Ford is using to reinforce plastic in the F-150's electrical harnesses.

Other options that the automaker is researching and experimenting with seem further out there, though in reality they come straight from planet Earth: tomato skin, dandelion roots, algae and agave fiber, for example. Then there's lobster shells — Kiziltas said they have "good antimicrobial properties" — and coffee chaff, which Ford used in a headlamp housing application, achieving a 17 percent weight reduction and up to 5 percent in cost savings.

Bamboo, particularly its combination with plastic, could see use in interior applications for the automaker. It's fast-growing, compostable and has the tensile strength of steel, the automaker said.

Bamboo also happens to be the flagship material for Pivot Materials, a Detroit-based plastics manufacturer focused on sustainable materials such as natural fiber-reinforced thermoplastics.

Pivot, formerly Spectalite LLC, brought its bamboo fiber-reinforced thermoplastic to market in 2016. The company is in the process of launching Pivotal Products, a home and housewares division, that will make square- and animal-shaped plates for children as well as other products from the bamboo material.

As for its use as a production part for the automotive industry, Guenther said it's an ongoing process: "We're close, but no cigar yet."

But Kiziltas knows that no matter how great a new material is, there are three important factors it has to meet for Ford's decision makers to sign off on it.

"One of the biggest things is cost," he said during his presentation. "You need to make sure you're getting a cost benefit."

Then there's lightweighting, followed by sustainability.

"We wish people did care about sustainability more than other things, but we need to be real and honest with you guys," Kiziltas told conference attendees. "Cost is the most major driver for our applications."