Plant plastic

[Arrow]

Zelfo Australia Factory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztcEvU8Bil4
3:37




"...first developed in 1992...Zelfo is an ecological building material composed of water and cellulose plant fibers such as hemp, flax, sugar-cane and waste paper.

To retain its truly sustainable reputation, Zelfo is not combined with resins or glues and achieves optimal biodegradability. The material is moldable and comparable to wood when finished, making it an ideal green material choice for furniture, toys, instruments, and more.

"...tensile strength from 7 to more than 90 MPa are obtainable."



www.zelfoaustralia.com
-

Any ideas on how they make this stuff? Is it just as simple as grinding up hemp and paper fibers with some kind of clay body or cement?
Basically a super papier mache??

[grommet]

intriquing stuff--- very expensive.

[mehl]

Thanks for the link, I've been wanting to research green sculpture materials. I got my B.S. in Environmental Science with a focus in chemistry in 02, so I should know better than to use some of what I do. I've seen a cool material that is like OSB, but with sunflower seed shells. It makes really beautiful patterns, and it seems like you could create something similar to cast with.

[Scout]

Interesting. I wonder how carveable it is. Scout

[racine]

excellent i hope, biodegradable chair .. isnt that a bit dangerous for the incontinent folk...
looks beautiful though -be good if it gets to common usage.

[Arrow]

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/637...gg&stemming=on

[grommet]

Originally Posted by racine

excellent i hope, biodegradable chair .. isnt that a bit dangerous for the incontinent folk...
looks beautiful though -be good if it gets to common usage.

you'd think, but even the potato starch biodegradable stuff can go through the dishwasher a lot. Maybe it gets to a certain age & then goes ***poof***

[racine]

aldous huxley said that mostly happens to old men around fiftyfive

[grommet]

Originally Posted by racine

aldous huxley said that mostly happens to old men around fiftyfive

what ever was he referring to???

[racine]

***POOF***

[grommet]

cool, spontaneous combustion... any guys here that age?

[racine]

just a faint miasma.. must be biodegradable

[Scout]

Some of us wish we were that age again. Scout

[grommet]

Originally Posted by racine

just a faint miasma.. must be biodegradable

Ah. Perhaps too much meat in the diet? Tried beano?

[Arrow]

A little speculation on the Zelfo material.

Lignin based glue/binder?

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/637...gg&stemming=on
"...by continuously grinding the raw material... into a microfiber pulp having an increased internal fiber surface and an increased degree of interlinking..."

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question463.htm
"...compares lignin to the concrete used in buildings, with cellulose as the steel frame. Without lignin, a tree could only grow to be about 6 feet tall...Brown kraft paper, the dark brown paper used in grocery store bags, and cardboard are stiff and sturdy because they have more lignin in them...

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?...DISPLAY=CLAIMS
"Lignin was isolated from sawdust and used as a substitute in phenol formaldehyde resins."

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg.../ap04-402.html
"...Some pulping processes are designed to remove as much lignin as possible, while others are designed merely to separate the fibers so as to allow banding. The more lignin is removed, up to a certain point, the more bonding can take place, and the stronger the paper. (The amount of lignin in a sheet, by the way, cannot be estimated by how brown it is: high-yield bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp is white, but kraft grocery bags, which contain only 3 1/2 %to 8% lignin, are brown.)"

http://books.google.com/books?id=Jmu..._0_I4ZgU&hl=en
"Milled wood lignin is produced by milling of wood in a rotatory ball mill."

http://www.zelfoshop.com/Downloads/e...tin_oliver.pdf
"Zelfo is made using a mechanical process involving pressure and heat...sprayed fibres are adhered in specific direction that adds to the tensile strength. While still wet Zelfo can be textured, patterned, stamped or coloured...Unbleached fibres have a better water resistance due to their higher lignin content."