What would you say if you heard that your next car could be made out of coconuts? No, it’s not a nutty scenario as some researchers in Baylor University are establishing. They have successfully turned out trunk liners, floorboards and car-door interior covers using fibres from the outer husks of coconuts. This is an environmentally sound replacement to the synthetic polyester fibres usually used in the car industry.

Preliminary reports show that coconut replacements can easily meet most of the industry’s requirements and that the mechanical properties are just as good as there synthetic counterparts. Coconuts apart from being an environmentally friendly alternative do not burn very well or emit toxic fumes, which is one of the specifications in passing tests required for their certification as commercial automotive parts.

This substitute has a lot of possibilities because coconuts are an abundant, renewable resource. The main producers around the world are countries like Philippines, Indonesia, India, Brazil and Thailand. Coconuts now are used chiefly to produce coconut milk or coconut oil. The outer husk is made of fibre and coconut dust (piph). The piph is spongy in the nascent stage, but dries and contracts into dirt-like particles that the research team tested to have the capability to absorb 10 times its weight in water. The fibres strength, stiffness and ductility make it ideal for a lot of diverse applications from ropes and mats to environmentally sound particle boards used in construction work.

For application inside cars, the fibres are intermixed with polypropylene fibres and then hot-pressed (compression-moulded) into required shapes. This composite coconut fibre provides a rigid architecture which is lightweight, yet stiff.

The project which is the first of its kind hopes to meld a third world abundant product with first world processes. The research team led by Walter Bradley, an engineering professor from the University of Baylor (Texas) is attempting to bring this into the industry’s mainstream. They have tied up with a Texas-based fibre processing company that supplies unwoven fibre mats to four major automotive companies. The team is producing a 600-pound roll of the composite material and helping out with the safety performance tests for certification.

A success would not only achieve a lot for the environment but also for the 11 million coconut farmers around the world who make an average annual income of $500.

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