Ford to Make Cars Out of Wood

It's not what you might think, but it's a strange concept nevertheless. Ford Motor Co. put out a press release last week (pointed out by a FastCompany blog post) that its European research facility in Aachen, Germany, is at work investigating a strong and mold-able new compound made mostly of discarded wood scraps.

Dubbed "liquid wood," the material behaves similarly to plastic — it can be molded into virtually any shape usually assigned to plastic and is durable, but it does not contain any of the toxic chemicals found in plastics, contains no petroleum inputs, can be recycled up to five times and (according to Ford's flaks) is "virtually carbon neutral." The material was developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology and is being hyped as the next big thing to challenge the ubiquity of plastic.

Liquid wood is made from scrap wood and paper, combined with fiber and wax and is mixed into a "thick sludge" that could be injection-molded into car interiors and even engine components, if Ford's experiments prove fruitful. Ford says in its press release that roughly 290 Ford automobile parts are made from renewable resources such as cotton, wood (just the regular stuff), flax, hemp, jute fiber and natural rubber.

So if you pull up next to a Ford in the not-too-distant future and smell the distinct odor of a campfire emanating from the hood, you'll know why.

Photo courtesy of the Ford Motor Co.