62 Di Bella Guido, Fiore Vincenzo and Valenza Antonino

2. ADVANTAGES AND LIMITS

Generally, they are mentioned four main reasons which make the application of natural
fibers attractive; they are the following:

specific properties: natural fibers based on cellulose have a relatively low density,
and they are relatively stiff and strong. Therefore their specific properties, i.e. the
properties divided by the density, or the properties per kilo, are rather high, and at
present they are comparable to those of glass fibers;
price: natural fiber reinforced composites are originally aimed at the replacement of
glass fiber-reinforced composites. Depending on the exact quality of fiber needed,
natural fibers are in most cases cheaper than glass fibers;
health advantages: natural fibers are also expected to give less health problems for
the people producing the composites. Natural fibers do not cause skin irritations and
they are not suspected of causing lung cancer. This is especially an issue since the
discussion on whether or not very small glass fibers can cause lung cancer, it hasnt
still ended.;
recyclability: natural fiber composites are also often claimed to be recyclable. There
is some confusion on this issue and, for example, different sources do not agree on
the feasibility of flax fiber composite recycling. For mechanical recycling -in the
production process itself- natural fibers have no clear advantage over glass fibers,
both fibers will suffer from a second processing step, and for flax fibers there is a
chance of additional thermal degradation during this step. A definite advantage of
flax fiber composites over glass fiber composites, however, is the fact that they can
be burned (euphemistically called thermal recycling) without leaving large amounts
of slag. All in all, the use of natural fibers has a definite green image.

Nevertheless, these promising fibers possess also some negative characteristics:

they are highly hydrophilic;

they can vary a lot in properties;

which makes accurate predictions of the respective composite properties difficult.???

3. PROPERTIES OF NATURAL FIBERS

3.1. Production Processes

The major steps in producing natural fibers for use in composites include:

harvesting of the fiber-bearing plants: there are several methods for harvesting most
natural fibers since they are used not only in composites but also in the manufacture
of other products. For example, fibers derived from wood are used in paper and
forest products industries, flax fiber is used to make linen and cigarette papers, jute