Uses
Kenaf is cultivated for its fibre in India, Bangladesh, United States of America, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Viet Nam, Thailand, parts of Africa, and to a small extent in southeast Europe. The stems produce two types of fibre, a coarser fibre in the outer layer (bast fibre), and a finer fibre in the core. It matures in 100 to 200 days. Kenaf was grown in Egypt over 3000 years ago. The kenaf leaves were consumed in human and animal diets, the bast fibre was used for bags, cordage, and the sails for Egyptian boats. This crop was not introduced into southern Europe until the early 1900s. Today, principal farming areas are China, India, and it is also grown in many other countries such as the US, Mexico and Senegal.
The main uses of kenaf fibre have been rope, twine, coarse cloth (similar to that made from jute), and paper. In California, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi 3,200 acres (13 km²) of kenaf were grown in 1992, most of which was used for animal bedding and feed.
Uses of kenaf fibre include engineered wood, insulation, clothing-grade cloth, soil-less potting mixes, animal bedding, packing material, and material that absorbs oil and liquids. It is also useful as cut bast fibre for blending with resins for plastic composites, as a drilling fluid loss preventative for oil drilling muds, for a seeded hydromulch for erosion control. Kenaf can be made into various types of environmental mats, such as seeded grass mats for instant lawns and moldable mats for manufactured parts and containers. Panasonic has set up a plant in Malaysia to manufacture kenaf fibre boards and export them to Japan.
Additionally, as part of its overall effort to make vehicles more sustainable, Ford is making the material inside the door – known as the bolster – in part from kenaf. The first implementation of kenaf within a Ford vehicle will be in the 2013 Ford Escape.
The use of kenaf is anticipated to offset 300,000 pounds of oil-based resin per year in North America and reduces the weight of the door bolsters by 25 percent. Weight savings translate into fuel savings for drivers.
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