Amar K. Mohanty

Natural Fibre Composites for a Sustainable and Low-carbon Economy: Where We are and Our Future Directions!   Bioproducts Discovery & Development Centre (BDDC), Department of Plant Agriculture and School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The escalating price of crude oil, its dwindling nature along with the increased environmental concerns has drawn the attention of researchers in creating new eco-friendly products and materials. Recent developments on bio-resin and natural fibre composites are moving towards engineering such new sustainable materials for various industrial uses from packaging to automotives parts, construction and consumer products. Natural fibres have lower density, have superior specific strength, require less energy to produce, are biodegradable, good for the environment, possess superior sound abatement characteristics, and inexpensive as compared to synthetic glass fibres. The biological resource-based economy, so-called as bioeconomy or “low-carbon economy” looks to substitute petro-based carbon with bio-carbon to the permissible extent so as to maintain balance among cost, performance and environment of the resulting products. In sustainable development path we see a transition through a road-map from petro-based towards bio-based. If not 100% bio-based, a hybrid of petroleum-based and renewable resource-based technology is getting market demand for cost-performance attributes of these new emerging products. Biocomposites engineered from natural fibers and synthetic petro-based polymers like polypropylene, polyethylene, epoxy and polyesters have been developed for varying industrial uses. Biobased composites from natural fibre and bio-resins are getting increased attention recently. Bio-resins based on their chemical structures may be biodegradable (compostable) or non-biodegradable. Biodegradable bio-resins like poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly (butylenes succinate) PBS, and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) etc. and non-biodegradable bio-resins like bio-polyolefin, bio-nylons etc. find uses in developing new natural fibre composites with reduced carbon foot-print. Besides agricultural natural fibers like industrial hemp, kenaf, flax, jute, sisal and henequen; inexpensive biomasses such as switch grass, miscanthus, wheat straw, corn stovers, soy stalks, lignin (the byproducts from pulp and paper and lingo-cellulosic ethanol industries) as well as distillers’s grains (the coproducts from corn ethanol industries) are getting increased interest in engineering sustainable biobased composite materials. The presentation will provide an overview on recent developments on natural fibre composites with a special emphasis on its growth and commercialization efforts.

Resume

Dr. Amar Mohanty, a full Professor and Premier's Research Chair in Biomaterials and Transportation, is the Director of the Bioproducts Discovery & Development Centre (BDDC) at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is an international leader in the field of natural fibre composites, bioplastics, biobased materials and biorefinery with a focus in engineering new sustainable materials. He was the recipient of the Andrew Chase Forest Products Division Award from the Forest Products Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He also received the prestigious Jim Hammer Memorial Service Award from the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society in 2011 and in 2012 he was awarded with the prestigious “Glory of India” (Bharat Jyoti) award by the IIFS-India. Dr. Mohanty has more than 450 publications to his credit including 210 peer-reviewed journal papers and 12 awarded US patents. Dr. Mohanty serves in editorial board of five international journals, is the honorary Editor of the journal “Advanced Materials Letters” and is the "Editor-in-Chief" of the “Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy”. He was the lead editor of the CRC book “Natural Fibers, Biopolymers and Biocomposites,” Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL as well as for the American Scientific Publishers’ book “Packaging Nanotechnology”.