Green biocomposites: A prospective utilization in automobile industry

Abstract

Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites becomes the most promising and identified research area. As these composites not only offer the good mechanical strength but also are light in weight and cost effective. The reasons of popularity of this area reside in many important parameters such as recyclability, biodegradability and environment friendly. Now scientists have developed biopolymer derived from corn, soy etc. which is used to reinforce the natural fibers and developed a fully biodegradable composite material. The application of the natural fiber composites not only found in the building and constructions sectors but also in the automotive and aircrafts structures sectors. In this chapter we are discussing about the Green Biocomposites and their utilization in the automobile fields. The chapter also highlighted a general class of the various available natural fibers and their application in the automotive sectors. This chapter also provides an insight of the safety measures such as crashworthiness of the vehicles. Also a review of the current research in the field of automotive industry is presented and some conclusions for the future vehicle design using composites are suggested.