Could ‘liquid wood’ replace plastic?

[n2doc]

Germans engineer an organic alternative from a paper waste product.

By Brian Whitley| Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor/ February 11, 2009 edition



Almost 40 years ago, American scientists took their first steps in a quest to break the world’s dependence on plastics.

But in those four decades, plastic products have become so cheap and durable that not even the forces of nature seem able to stop them. A soupy expanse of plastic waste – too tough for bacteria to break down – now covers an estimated 1 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean.

Sensing a hazard, researchers started hunting for a substitute for plastic’s main ingredient, petroleum. They wanted something renewable, biodegradable, and abundant enough to be inexpensive.

Though they stumbled upon a great candidate early on, many US chemists had given up on it by the end of the 1990s. The failed wonder material: lignin, the natural compound that lends strength to trees. A waste product from paper production, much of the lignin supply is simply burned as fuel.

But while many scientists turned to other green options, a German company, Tecnaro, says it found the magic formula. Its “liquid wood” can be molded like plastic, yet biodegrades over time

more:
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/02/11/could-‘liquid-wood’-replace-plastic/

[grannie4peace]

1. that is interesting!

[jody]

2. Interesting but lignin byproducts from paper production are burned so if substituted for plastic it

means less oil for plastic but more oil for paper-production energy.

[wovenpaint]

3. Hemp, too

Thanks for this interesting article - I'm waiting for hemp to make a comeback in the US.

http://www.hempplastic.com/newSite/index.htm

The US Constitution is written on hemp fabric...
What I didn't know (until now) is that Henry Ford was making car panels from it!

[madrchsod]

4. my son`s production line makes plastic sheet out of corn by products

the plastic he runs is used in display signage and credit/debit cards. the biggest drawback is it smells really bad when it`s being melted...

[wovenpaint]

5. yarn spun from corn

How about handknit corn socks? :hi: There's a soy yarn, too.

http://www.straw.com/cpy/yarns/Maizy-scans.html

[kristopher]

6. Corn based plastics can't be recycled with other plasics

And, so far, it is very difficult to separate the two types of plastic. Don't know the particulars, but I heard the corn product somehow interferes with the regular recycling process meaning that widespead adoption without somehow addressing the identification problems will essentially shut down at least some segments of the plastics recycling industry.