Wheat growing and processing creates wheat straw--a byproduct that's usually discarded. Boo! Fortunately, this straw just hit the lottery and will start a new life reinforcing resin parts in Ford vehicles.
The automaker collaborated with academic researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, to develop the material for the 2010 Ford Flex modern minivan's third-row interior bins. Ford says it's the first automaker to use wheat straw this way. The parts are usually made with plastic and glass fiber that is energy-intensive to make, a respiratory risk for workers, and heavy.
Engineer Debbie Mielewski heads up Ford's renewables-oriented plastics research lab, which developed a soy foam that now goes into more than a million Ford vehicles annually. The material is so good that Ford has agreements with John Deere and Sears to put it in seats for tractors and agricultural equipment.
When we spoke over the summer, Mielewski envisioned a futuristic vehicle made entirely without petroleum, one where all the fibers and resins can be composted. "The tricky part about that is that you don’t ever want them to degrade in the vehicle," she told me. "We’re looking for a bacteria or microbe switch that would be in the compost pile but would never be in the vehicle."
Back in the present, the Ford team is planning to use the new wheat straw reinforced material for armrest liners, door trim panels, as well as center console bins and trays. Now we just need some plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to put all these green materials into.
Photo: (Left to right) Debbie Mielewski, Ellen Lee, and Cynthia Flanigan assess a natural fiber filled part at Ford's Research Biomaterials Group. Credit: Ford Motor Company.
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