Fibes from Algae
The Market
The world’s output of natural fibers produced from plants and animals reached the $50 billion mark in 2010 for a total production of 35 million tons, of which 23 million tons are reserved for textiles and clothing. The balance of 12 million tons is used in a series of industrial and consumer product applications like the reinforcement of thermoplastic panels in European cars, composite boards with coconut fibers that are more resistant than teak in the Indian construction industry, roofing reinforced with sisal in Brazil, hemp blended in cement used in China for the 2008 Olympics. The global market for natural fiber composites in the automobile, construction, sports and leisure industry was valued at $2.1 billion in 2010, and it is expected to more than double by 2015. BMW vehicles contain up to 24 kilograms of flax and sisal which are transformed into composites for indoor panels or instrument boards. The Mercedes Benz A class car uses natural composites in the underbody panels not only because of their natural origin, rather because of performance in terms of weight and durability.
The largest natural fiber produced in the world with an output of 25 million tons in 2010 is cotton. The three biggest cotton producers are China (32%), India (22%) and USA (12%). However, cotton is on the decline, especially in the US where this natural fiber’s farming area dropped 30 percent in one year to just over 3 million HA, the lowest since 1983. Whereas the decline has been traditionally due to the replacement of natural by synthetic fibers, the global trend is reinforced by the Chinese wish to farm food on land that is now reserved for cotton. China wants to broadly substitute the water intensive cotton farms with food crops. They have opted to substitute cotton with industrial hemp. The cultivation of hemp will expand from an modest 20,000 HA at present to perhaps as much as 1.3 million HA in a few years. Hemp grows prolific on hilly and less fertile soil without any need for irrigation while stabilizing erosion, a key ecosystem service. The second most important natural fiber produced in the world is jute, good for 2.9 million tons and mainly produced in India, commanding higher prices (up to $400/T) than cotton since it is predominantly used as a substitute for plastic packaging and therefore linked to the international price for petroleum.
