Fiber

00:00:03: Substance.

00:00:04: Stories about the

00:00:06: stuff that shapes our world.

00:00:43: I'm Joe Hansen, and this is Substance.

00:00:46: A podcast about the discoveries in innovations in chemistry and beyond helping us build a sustainable society for the future.

00:00:55: In short we tell stories of stuff that shapes our world And at this episode We're talking about fiber!

00:01:13: This switch would significantly reduce the carbon footprint of fiber materials and make them more sustainable.

00:01:21: And there are several other benefits which we'll touch on later, in a second part.

00:01:26: our episode will talk to Julie Schumacher & Zach Royle about how coconut fibers play an important role in restoring coastlines reviving ecosystems protecting many people's homes from floods.

00:01:42: But let's first meet BASF fiber-bonding expert.

00:01:45: My name is Sun Zhongzhou.

00:01:47: I'm currently leading the adhesive on a fiber bonding business in Asia Pacific.

00:01:53: Joe as material scientist who works on composite fiber materials.

00:01:58: In most basic sense, A Fiber is simply substance that longer than it wide.

00:02:04: There are essentially three different sources for fibers.

00:02:07: They can either come from plants things like hemp cotton, or coconut.

00:02:12: These fibers are special because they can store carbon dioxide that the plants removed from atmosphere while growing.

00:02:21: Other fibers can be produced by crude oil like polyethylene which means their production process releases carbon dioxide.

00:02:30: And finally there is inorganic fiber such as glass and carbon fiber.

00:02:36: What are fibers used for?

00:02:39: Well, on their own fibers are strong and flexible but they don't have much mechanical stability.

00:02:45: That means that they're easy to weave into soft flowy fabrics for clothes.

00:02:50: But They can also be chemically bonded together To produce hard rigid materials that combine the best of both worlds The strength of the fibers themselves plus the mechanical stability Of the binder that is sticking them together.

00:03:06: You might've heard a term fiberglass before which consists of glass fibers embedded in a plastic matrix.

00:03:13: Or carbon fiber, the super-strong yet lightweight material that's loved by rocket scientists and race car drivers!

00:03:22: But that is not what Cheng Zhengzhou was working on — he replaces artificial fibers with natural ones... ...and uses totally new substance called acridor to bind these fibers together.

00:03:34: Acridor is water bone polymer.

00:03:38: you can think it is a glue.

00:03:40: It can glue lots of different materials together to make its stronger and stiffer, so compared with other binders ,it's very easy to be applied on the material because this has a very low viscosity .

00:03:55: And these also can be triggered to be solidified in a simple way meaning if we have heated the materials into one hundred fifty degrees And hot press for two minutes will become very rigid and stiff materials.

00:04:11: With this new special kind of glue, you can glue together almost any natural fiber... ...and then press it with heat into your desired shape.

00:04:20: The possibilities to replacing traditional plastics are almost endless.

00:04:25: So the first time I see that our technologies make these long fibers, flexible fibers after simple hot melt and then molded into very complex shapes, like very rigid plastics.

00:04:41: I feel it's very exciting for my personal view.

00:04:45: so this looks like a very tough plastic but also contains around eighty percent of the natural fibers.

00:04:54: So i think that is interesting to have bright future technologies from my perspective.

00:05:01: Because these new materials contain so many natural fibers, their carbon footprint is negligible.

00:05:09: They can even be carbon-neutral meaning that if you look at the whole product no net carbon dioxide has been released during the manufacturing process.

00:05:18: So considering the nature of this fiber is captioned carbon dioxide rather than producing carbon dioxide.

00:05:24: The more natural fiber content ,the greener it could have become.

00:05:30: Other binary technologies cannot help to reach that level of sustainability.

00:05:35: There are lots of different natural fibers, but in Asia none is as abundant as bamboo.

00:05:43: In fact we let a ton of bamboo go to waste.

00:05:47: Shenzhen Joe gave me some numbers.

00:05:49: Every year about five hundred million tons of bamboo are grown the Asia Pacific region But only thirty percent of that is harvested, and even THAT is typically made into relatively simple products.

00:06:03: Think chopsticks cutting boards scaffolding for construction sites or simple furniture items.

00:06:09: So all these applications are relatively low-end And also yeah high cost because it's the label... High label costs inside so they're cost to transport it and harvest.

00:06:23: this bamboo cannot be compensated by the profit of selling these products.

00:06:29: So in this case, at least a seventy percentage of bamboo are now somehow wasted and can not be further

00:06:36: utilized.".

00:06:37: But with help from their new binder you could use bamboo fibers mix them with the Acridur Binder then heat mold into very complex shapes.

00:06:48: This significantly broadens the range applications that bamboo could used

00:06:53: for.

00:06:53: that can meet the requirements from either furniture or automotive industries, as well some home appliance applications.

00:07:02: For those applications we identify more and more customers' interests And we foresee it has a great business potential here in Asia

00:07:10: Pacific.".

00:07:11: Besides the fact natural fiber composites store carbon inside of material... ...and give unused bamboo new life, Zhou points out two other advantages.

00:07:22: First Acridor is water-based.

00:07:25: And second, it has a very low amount of volatile organic compounds also called VOCs.

00:07:32: VOCs are molecules which you might have smelled in new car.

00:07:36: If he removed the VOC's The smell is gone.

00:07:39: So currently your door panels or your glue box or dashboards Sometimes its made from PPR ABS.

00:07:47: In this episode You'll hear these two abbreviations A lot.

00:07:50: PP stands for polypropylene, an extremely lightweight plastic that you can find in yogurt containers ketchup bottles and things like that.

00:08:00: ABS is short for Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene a mouthful And A very durable Plastic That Can Be Made Into Things Like Cell Phone Cases Suitcases Even Lego Bricks.

00:08:12: Those materials have certain plastic smell.

00:08:16: with this Accidoo natural fiber composites in worst case It smells like natural fibers, like fumes.

00:08:24: But with a better, let's say older removing technologies the nature fiber smells can be further removed and also BSF has some unique technologies to remove all this VOC on order for it.

00:08:39: And by these two combinations there is no smell at all.

00:08:43: The automotive industry have very high standards of odor testing The odors rated on a scale from one to five, with one being the worst and five being best.

00:08:55: Most of plastics can get no higher than three point-five but natural fiber composites actually achieve a five!

00:09:04: Perfect marks?

00:09:05: No smell.

00:09:07: Another important argument for use in more of these natural fiber composite materials is their low weight compared traditional plastic.

00:09:17: That is of particular interest for electric vehicles, because they are burdened by the weight

00:09:31: natural fiber composites compared with PP and ABS.

00:09:47: With the same strength, it only have around eighty percentage of its weights.

00:09:52: Every electric vehicle is equipped with about sixty kilograms of plastic in a driver's cabin alone.

00:10:00: And Shenzhen Zhou says that all the plastic dashboards door panels seat panels and so on could be replaced by Natural Fiber Composites

00:10:10: In general speaking at least while saving around fifteen to twenty kilograms for each car.

00:10:16: I think in current industry it's highly

00:10:18: appreciated."

00:10:19: Car manufacturers who want to switch away from traditional plastics do not need make big changes into their production processes, if they already have a hot press machine and the right mold of the part that they wanna make then…they're set!

00:10:35: They just immerse natural fiber mats put these mats on the hot press machine and mold it into desired shape, just like less sustainable materials that they're already using.

00:10:49: But there are lots of other applications reaching far beyond automotive industry!

00:10:55: Take furniture for example.

00:10:57: Last year The so-called Future Chair made from natural fiber composite won a large Chinese home furnishing product innovation competition.

00:11:09: our chair wins this award is because it achieved such a high performance, high strength with such thin layer of materials and also the possibility to be molded into very smooth curved shape.

00:11:28: This has been appreciated by these awards.

00:11:30: The current plan is for the future chair to soon go into mass production, and it will hopefully be sold to customers in Australia & New Zealand.

00:11:40: Zhengzheng Zhou already has one of course... ...and he's a big fan!

00:11:53: Then

00:11:57: that chair is only one of many everyday items being made with natural fiber composites.

00:12:04: There are also clothes hangers, home appliances and suitcases.

00:12:09: Zhang Zhengzhou shared a funny story about how one of his customers tested the strengths in this new suitcase he was showing her.

00:12:16: One day we're due to an electronic vehicle customer in China And the technical director said she's a lady.

00:12:24: She just simply do not believe this material is stronger than polypropylene or ABS.

00:12:29: So the simple way that she's doing it, she put these suitcases on a floor and then she jumped onto the surface three of four times to check whether there are certainly crackings or any defects produced during its jumping.

00:12:47: but eventually no cracking and no defects as the suitcase says normal.

00:12:53: Then, somehow by this very simple experiment she's convinced that these natural phobocomposite materials is really as similar performance like ABS or polypropylene.

00:13:05: Its success stories like this one make Zhengzheng Zhou believe in the potential of this new technology.

00:13:12: He

00:13:12: believes at least customers from Asia Pacific region will soon see more and products made with Acridur technology.

00:13:20: You'll see some products in the supermarkets or home goods markets were shown, so I feel that next few years the volume will be grown quite rapidly.

00:13:31: So i was thinking about even around point five percentage replacement of polypropylene or ABS in Asia Pacific.

00:13:40: it's already leading to a fifteen thousand metric tonne volume of binders That is already acquired high volume of fine chemicals.

00:13:50: So I feel that also if the oil price goes higher and higher, then more attractive of this technology will be.

00:13:59: That's a wrap on our first story about how BASF uses bamboo fiber waste... ...and turns it into something new and useful.

00:14:07: Our second story takes us to the shoreline of New Jersey in the United States.

00:14:13: My guests are Julie Schumacher & Zach Royle from The American Literal Society And just to clear things up The word literal in their name has nothing to do with literature and books.

00:14:25: It's a different work, L-I-T-T O-R-A-L.

00:14:29: that means coastal region.

00:14:31: We are a Coastal Conservation Nonprofit Organization.

00:14:34: we've been around since the early nineteen sixties.

00:14:38: Our mission is to care for the coasts And empower others To Do the same!

00:14:43: And we do That through A mix of Habitat Restoration Which Is What Both Julie & I Work In.

00:14:48: We Also Do Advocacy Work We do environmental education and we do community science.

00:14:54: The goal of their work is to keep the coastal ecosystems alive and healthy, which is sometimes tricky because of the intense development that's going on at the shorelines.

00:15:05: Many people dream of having a waterfront property.

00:15:08: they buy a house right on the beach because they want to wake up to the sound of waves crashing or see the sunset over.

00:15:18: I asked Julie to describe the typical New Jersey

00:15:34: shoreline.

00:15:46: You'll have some kind of dune, typically that creates a buffer between the beach and development.

00:15:55: And maybe... I don't know, fifty yards of beech?

00:15:59: Maybe sometimes less.

00:16:02: That's what ocean side looks like!

00:16:04: Then all our bays are heavily developed with lagoon communities.

00:16:09: So these some even created filled in wetland area Just completely hardened bulkheading, so those houses again are right on top of each other.

00:16:20: It's difficult to find natural areas in our bays—in developed

00:16:25: areas.".

00:16:26: Especially in those developed areas many coastlines are suffering from erosion.

00:16:32: Waves are washing away the beaches.

00:16:35: water is seeping into people's basements.

00:16:38: but why does this happen?

00:16:40: Why does the water steal away?

00:16:43: I mean, the first thing to note is that erosion is a natural process.

00:16:47: So there are forces that happen along your coastal environments.

00:16:50: There's something called the literal drift.

00:16:51: so it's a general current That kind of flows along your shoreline?

00:16:55: So over time that kinda takes sediment and sand with it as it flows in a certain direction.

00:17:01: They're also storms that have larger waves that will remove some of this sand and sediment And thats being exacerbated little bit more now As Julie talked about with climate change.

00:17:11: And there's been changes that we've done to the upland systems as well.

00:17:15: So in your bays and your estuaries, in particular... There would have been sediment that had eroded from the uplands that flowed down into it!

00:17:23: That would have replenished some of this sediment that gets lost through these natural processes.

00:17:27: But with development We've blocked a lot of that natural erosion that is happening out there or The ability for that to kind-of flow into these systems.

00:17:36: so A LOT OF AREAS THERE'S A LACK OF SEDEMENT.

00:17:38: WE'LL SAY IT'S CEDEMANT STARV.

00:17:40: NOW because of that we're seeing this increased erosion.

00:17:43: And in recent years, the issue has gotten worse.

00:17:46: Climate change is definitely exacerbating all those issues.

00:17:49: so it's creating higher water levels.

00:17:51: So now there are more waters moving inland and slowly eroding away these areas where they weren't being touched by water before.

00:17:59: We have an increase frequency for larger storms.

00:18:01: Now we had a whole bunch of bigger storm events taking out a lot of erosion whereas more frequently than they would've been.

00:18:08: So those things are definitely contributing to this increase of vulnerability that we're seeing along our coastal shoreline.

00:18:16: The literal society is trying to stop this erosion by creating so-called living shorelines.

00:18:23: A Living Shoreline Is Basically the Opposite Of a Hardened Shoreline That Will Be Made From Bulkheads or Sea Walls.

00:18:31: Zach Could Explain Why Living Shorelines Are So Beneficial For The Entire Ecosystem.

00:18:36: A living shoreline, it's really like a suite of techniques that are all designed to stabilize your shoreline while also creating or enhancing habitat.

00:18:47: The big thing about the Living Shorelines is we're using that habitat uh...to take advantage.

00:18:57: So if you think about salt marshes, we find that your salt marsh can protect your shoreline.

00:19:03: If they're big enough just as well is a hard instructor can something like a bulkhead or sea wall.

00:19:10: but it also provides these additional benefits such as habitat for fishes and birds.

00:19:16: It helps clean water to act like sponge and soak up floodwaters, it aids in carbon sequestration and can provide some recreational opportunities as well.

00:19:26: So you get all these additional benefits when you do this more nature-based approach than when you strictly harden shorelines.

00:19:35: so we think the living shoreline approaches a much more holistic, much more ecosystem friendly approach.

00:19:42: that really provides way more benefit.

00:19:44: then just your bulkhead or seawall.

00:19:46: One of their recent projects took place at Shark River Very close to where Zach and Julie work.

00:19:52: In this community, the sea was slowly but steadily eating away at the shore.

00:19:57: The beach had already completely disappeared And a small strip of marsh Was also in process of eroding Some places.

00:20:06: road was less than a meter from water's edge.

00:20:10: So the community concerned about loss of their shoreline.

00:20:14: They were very concerned with frequent flooding that really came with high tide, so they had a very low elevation shoreline and every time there was a big high tide the road was flooding.

00:20:27: This type of flooding then happens without a big storm is also called sunny day flooding And it happened so regularly in Shark River That The Community wanted to bring an end.

00:20:39: Originally, there were people that came in and looked at what we can put up walls or seawalls.

00:20:44: Or big bulkheads And In this case it was really the community that rejected That idea.

00:20:50: they were aware enough of The downsides of putting in that hard structure?

00:20:55: They wanted to do something more natural.

00:20:57: so We got involved in This process.

00:20:59: the goal for Zach Julie and their team Was clear Reestablish the beach and build Up the marsh.

00:21:07: So they set to work to create a living shoreline, To widen the beach.

00:21:12: To restore the ecosystem and protect the road from constant flooding.

00:21:18: After they collected enough data about how the water is moving And How The Wind Is Blowing They Got To Work!

00:21:24: They knew that had to dump truckloads of sand onto the Beach But That Wouldn't Suffice On It's Own.

00:21:30: Without Additional Protection That Sand Would Just Get Washed Away Again.

00:21:34: They needed some kind of structure to break the intensity of the waves.

00:21:40: So they filled large bags with rock and shell, placed them in water... And in front those wavebreakers put long logs made from coconut fiber.

00:21:51: They come in ten foot-long sections and range in diameter.

00:21:55: We often use twelve inch diameter.

00:21:58: They go up to two feet or twenty four inch diameter Their light weight As far as when they're dry, so what you are looking at is basically your taking.

00:22:10: I guess you could say like netting that has turned into a tube and stuffed with coconut fiber.

00:22:17: So the actual netting itself Is made out of coir Made out of fiber.

00:22:23: That just looks kind of mesh if you will Like a fiber mesh tube and then it is stuffed with husks.

00:22:33: So, It's brown in color pretty lightweight.

00:22:38: to carry a ten foot log I mean maybe one weighs thirty pounds.

00:22:44: Maybe you can carry on your shoulder.

00:22:46: no problem One person could carry one A twelve-foot one.

00:22:50: When they get up the twenty four inch diameter You'll need two people to carry them.

00:22:55: Similar to the bamboo fibers that Zhengzheng Zhou uses to produce furniture or suitcases, The coconut fibers are an abundant material That normally is thrown away as waste.

00:23:07: The ultimate source of this comes from Coconut plantations primarily in India and Sri Lanka And it's kind of that Southeast Asia.

00:23:17: So the husk material a waste material or byproduct of these plantations that are growing for like coconut oil, other types products.

00:23:27: And then they decide just letting them go to waste and use the husk

00:23:32: material.".

00:23:33: The logs from Coastal Restoration is one way that the fibers come in handy.

00:23:39: They're used in tons different ways.

00:23:41: you might not even notice.

00:23:43: Do have any brown welcome door mats at your house?

00:23:47: Those are also typically made from coconut fibers.

00:23:51: The use of coconut fiber has been used forever.

00:23:53: Centuries, centuries people have been using it.

00:23:56: From insulation to matting and carpeting to rope.

00:24:00: you know there is you know people mattresses padding all kinds of things that coconut fiber Has been used for planting.

00:24:08: It has a very natural pH so it stabilizes soils.

00:24:12: So, you have rocks and shells to break the waves.

00:24:15: And then you have coconut fiber logs.

00:24:17: to do what exactly?

00:24:19: They function really well to retain sediment.

00:24:23: they Do a great job.

00:24:25: so in this case right we're putting sand on The beach and we want to make sure that that sand stays there for as long As possible.

00:24:31: those Coconut fiber logs work Great at helping keep That sand on the Beach!

00:24:36: So that was their Function In This Living Shoreline Approach.

00:24:40: The coconut fiber logs don't just retain the sand that's already there, they also help build up

00:24:52: Over time, that's going to slowly build up and built-up.

00:25:06: And ultimately you will get a better marsh edge in the elevation that you want.

00:25:11: So it is all those coconut...all of that fiber material That's in middle of the log there.

00:25:16: All that husk material just traps all that sediment before it flows back In.

00:25:20: so makes them such good tool for this type work.

00:25:24: What's great is they're very flexible, so you can... Whatever contour your trying to achieve it quite easy.

00:25:32: You just stake in however want the contour be if you wanna straight line or need something curve around a marsh edge It's really easy.

00:25:42: move it.

00:25:43: After about two thousand feet of coconut logs were in place sand was trucked from nearby quarry to raise shoreline.

00:25:51: Then came volunteers for community who helped plant native plants to further stabilize this newly created beach and dune.

00:26:00: Once the coconut fiber logs have been put into water, they slowly degrade.

00:26:06: after a few years They'll be completely gone but their effect will outlast them.

00:26:11: But the idea is by time that are breaking down you've established an environment or the ecosystem that you've want to establish, and it's persisting now.

00:26:21: So in a case of like a marsh by the time this thing has been broken down all the marsh vegetation has regrown And now its growing up It is actually covering the log.

00:26:31: Now that vegetation is serving as protective aspect for your shoreline.

00:26:36: They do break-down but You use them on their way to rebuild habitat.

00:26:41: Then they can persist through time.

00:26:44: The Shark River Project was done in twenty-twenty three and now, Three years later Zach & Julie told me that the restoration work Was successful.

00:26:54: The community went from constant flooding of their road And having almost no beach at all To an average about twenty yards of walkable Beach for residents to enjoy In part At least thanks to the coconut fiber logs.

00:27:10: This is our episode today About Fiber.

00:27:12: I hope you enjoyed it, and will be back next month when we talk about Sulfur.