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Ford adds rice to F-150 truck mix
August 9, 2013
Ford adds rice to F-150 truck mix
Rice is the latest sustainable ingredient to be added to Ford’s F-150 pick-up, the best-selling truck in America. The manufacturer announced this week that the 2014 Ford F-150 will use plastic reinforced with rice hulls, a by-product of rice grain, in the truck’s electrical harness. The hulls will replace a talc-based reinforcement in a polypropylene composite developed specifically for Ford.
The company said it will use at least 45,000 pounds (20,400 kg) of hulls in the first year of production, sourced from farms in Arkansas. The hulls add to the soybeans and the significant amount of recycled materials already in the F-150 series production process. More than 650,000 F-Series trucks are sold each year in the US, with the fleet pioneering a host of green materials.
The new F-150 will also offer a factory-installed package that allows the engine to operate on either natural gas or petrol, potentially reducing emissions of both CO2 and harmful particulates and gases.
“The 2014 F-Series exemplifies our continued efforts to use recycled content in our vehicles,” said John Viera, Ford global director of sustainability and vehicle environmental matters. “We can have greater impact in this case because of the size and sales volume of this product.”
Read more at Business Green.
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