A prototype car bumper fascia made with soy-based polyol, one of the key ingredients in rigid polyurethane foam. (Ontario BioAuto Council)

How organic is your vehicle? While corn-based door panels and dashboards made from hemp may sound like a pipe dream, major car manufacturers have begun ditching traditional petroleum-based plastics and composites in favour of bio-based materials.

Indeed, researchers have predicted that by 2015, 100 kilograms of every car could come from materials made from plants like soy, wheat, canola and sugar cane.

"By and large, anything you make from oil you can make from biological material," says Terry Daynard, chief executive officer of the Ontario BioAuto Council, an industry-driven group working to promote biomaterials. "The question, of course, is can you do it in a cost-effective manner and can you do it with all the quality requirements the auto manufacturers want."

Increasingly, the answer seems to be yes.

Already, Mercedes S-Class vehicles boast 43 kg of bio-parts, for example, while Volvo uses renewable materials in nearly 100 different components.

Fuelling the bio-revolution

These plastic resin pellets are made from thermoplastic starch, a bio-based plastic using starch derived, in this case, from corn. (Ontario BioAuto Council)

The biggest driver of this bio-revolution is the skyrocketing price of oil. North American car manufacturers facing stiff global competition are keen to reduce costs, says Daynard, and raw materials grown in the nearest cornfield could fit the bill.

"The reason we're moving in this direction is because it's going to be cheaper," he says flatly.

However, he predicts that environmental issues will also become a strong driver of biocar development in the future.

Biomaterials are considered "greener" than those based on materials such as fossil fuels because they don't generate greenhouse gases. Replacing one tonne of conventional plastic with a bio-equivalent eliminates three tonnes of planet-warming carbon dioxide, for example.

That's a big plus for manufacturers who see Europe setting hard targets for carbon dioxide emissions and want to be prepared if similar regulations are enacted here.

Bioplastics are also generally lighter than their petroleum-based counterparts, which translates into better mileage. Every one-kilogram reduction in vehicle weight saves up to nine litres of fuel a year.

Finally, when the life the vehicle ends, plant-based parts can be composted instead of consigned to landfills.

R&D a hot area

BioFoam is a plant-seed-based polyurethane foam developed by The Woodbridge Group for automotive applications such as seat cushions, head-restraints and arm-rests. (Ed Cauchi)

With some of the advantages inherent to biomaterials, it's no surprise that car manufacturers have been investing in research. DaimlerChrysler, GM and Ford have been actively involved in the Ontario BioAuto Council. Ford is a major partner in the BioCar Initiative, a multi-university project looking at ways to transform agricultural crops into bio-plastics, foams and composites for the auto industry.

The Ontario government has also bought into the vision, committing nearly $6 million to the BioCar Initiative. At the University of Guelph, that money is helping researchers create industrial strains of crops like wheat, corn and soybeans.

Focusing on common Ontario crops was a deliberate choice, says the University of Guelph's Larry Erickson, one of the initiative's lead researchers.

"If we want to become a significant contributor to the auto industry, that means we need to be able to produce fairly large volumes of some of these raw materials," he explains.

Meanwhile, process and chemical engineers in Waterloo and Toronto are developing polymers, resins and composite materials made from these crops, while University of Windsor scientists are testing the prototypes.

Stringent standards

Like their conventional counterparts, each bio-based part must be able to withstand stresses such as exposure to water, high temperatures and sudden impacts. The auto industry is a demanding market where any hint of a problem can lead to expensive recalls.

"They have to show that it's every bit as good as what they're using now, if not better," says Daynard, referring to the resiliency of biomaterials. "It's got to meet all the same criteria."

At the Woodbridge Group, for example, it took several years to develop a bio-based foam that would meet customer specifications. The main limiting factors were reactivity issues and odour issues, which the R&D team eventually overcame with help from suppliers and university researchers.

The resulting BioFoam, engineered from a combination of petroleum and vegetable oils, will be used in seat cushions in the 2008 Ford Escape. From a performance standpoint, consumers shouldn't even notice the switch, according to Tom Justrich, Woodbridge’s director of global marketing.

"With the products we're looking at, it's meant to be a seamless change," he says.

But with a growing consumer appetite for green products, manufacturers may well decide to tout the organic components of their vehicles.

"I think it will become a bit of a status symbol," Erickson predicts.

The future is biodegradable

Currently biomaterials are used mainly for interior applications where the requirements aren't too stringent: products like headliners, storage trays, and sound absorption blocks. But researchers have their sights aimed much higher.

"Our target is to replace all the plastic that's in the car now with plant-made materials," says Erickson. "We obviously can't replace the heavy metal parts such as the engine, drive train, that kind of thing, but there are lots of other parts that are petroleum-based."

"I think within 10 years we'll be at least half way," he says.

And with each part that's replaced, the planet is left just a little bit greener.

"That's ultimately what's driving this," Justrich says.

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