Mindsigh

Hi-tech fibre is green… er orange actually

Posted by Jerry on February 20th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Technology

From fishing rods to warships and presumably motorcycles too, a new nano-fibre has been developed from …er… carrots. Developed by Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale, the fibre material – to be first used in fishing rods – is a renewable resource that is pretty much carbon neutral – so it’s great for the environment. According to Dr Hepworth, when the material is burnt the carbon it creates is cancelled out by the carbon absorbed by the carrots when they were growing.

The new fly fishing rods being manufactured at the inventors’ company, CelluComp in Burntisland, Fife, Scotland go on sale in March. They will retail at about the same price as normal fishing rods, and each contains about 50 percent carrot, using about 2kg in its construction, – according to an article in The Scotsman dated 9 Feb 2007.

The pair got together during their PhD studies at Reading University, when studying biological materials. The nano-fibers in the carrots are extracted and combined with high-tech resins to create a substance that can be moulded into any shape, flexibility or weight as required. The product hits the market just when there is global shortage of carbon fibre (which is extracted from non-renewable oil)

And if the process results in a sudden surge in the carrots futures market, they can always use turnips parsnips or swedes 🙂

I’m wondering whether there might also be a new strong thread here that could be used in clothing or other textile manufacture – the way kevlar and carbon fibres are used today in motorcycle gloves and jackets. The possibilities of these biocomposite materials seem endless!

Cheers
Jerry

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