Source: tandlnews.com.au
Back in 2009, there was a 43-acre biomass trial launched in California that featured hemp as a feedstock. The prospect of combusting hemp for energy or fuel helped hemp make progress in its return to the above-board commercial world. Earlier this year, the Hawaii state legislature has approved a bill that would allow the University of Hawaii to undertake two years of research into hemp as a biofuel feedstock, but the approved bill has strengthened the language to ensure that marijuana is not used instead of hemp. The state’s House of Represented added $72,600 in research funding to ensure there was enough to undertake the program.
Hemp and dope: the facts
The bottom line is that hemp is a non-food crop that grows on infertile land and does not have psychoactive properties like its cousin, the cannabis plant. It’s one of a family of plants that provide what are known as ‘bast fibres’. Bast is the barrier material between the bark and the inner woody material (the ‘xylem’) of plants like flax, hemp, jute, kenaf, and even stinging nettle.
For many years, these were the primary material in Europe for making cloth — and tales like Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans include scenes of young heroines spinning cloth out of stinging nettles. Though hemp fell into disfavour and outright bans because of its association with marijuana, it’s been making a comeback in the fibre world. In fact, Naturally Advanced Technologies entered into a development and supply agreement with Target in 2011 evaluate the use of its CRAiLAR Flax fibre in Target’s domestic textiles category. The proprietary CRAiLAR enzymatic process turns natural bast fibres into soft, finished textiles and can be integrated with existing technology for spinning, weaving, or forming fabric.
So, there’s medical (or recreational) hemp and industrial hemp — not the same thing. There’s also a crop known as sunn hemp, a legume that has nothing to do with either.
Hemp markets
Last July, Hemp, Inc. announced that it has signed a deal with KUSH to distribute a line of natural hemp-based skin care products featuring the unique properties of the hemp plant that provide powerful relief and scientific cellular rejuvenation.
A recent report has established that “the US market for hemp-based products has a highly dedicated and growing demand base, as indicated by recent US market and import data for hemp products and ingredients, as well as market trends for some natural foods and body care products.” In other hemp news, the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) conducted in summer 2012 the first comprehensive survey on cultivation, processing and especially applications of hemp fibres, shivs and seeds.
Hemp and biofuels
In the world of biofuels, the primary interest to date has been from the biodiesel community, which has an interest in hemp oil.
In February, Extreme Biodiesel and subsidiary XTRM Cannabis Ventures received Pre-Approval for a $5 million line of credit from Coastal Mortgage Group for the purpose of purchasing real estate, for the purpose of hemp cultivation, medical marijuana cultivation and commercial real estate related to dispensaries.
Amongst researchers, a team at the University of Connecticut are experimenting with hemp as a potential biodiesel feedstock and are preparing development of a multi-feedstock manufacturing facility. The 200,000 gpy (gallons per year) plant will be built with a $1.8 million grant from the DOE. Research shows that hemp-based biodiesel burns at a lower temperature than biodiesel produced from other feedstocks.
And there are applications as a feedstock for power generation, via pellets. In 2012, Patriot Biofuels reported that it was testing hemp pellets mixed with coal in Kentucky.
In addition, there is a number of companies conducting research into turning flax and hemp waste from the biodiesel manufacturing process into high quality (clothing) fibre.
The bottom line
Hemp’s turning into a proxy for the entire industry in some ways. A long developmental period filled with political controversy and early-stage products aimed at the, ahem, ‘nutraceutical’ market. Later, broader interest in the feedstock for products in the home, such as cloth fibres. As scale increases and costs decrease, eventually an interest has developed in terms of the energy and fuel markets.
To date, it’s been highly regionalised interest — Kentucky, Alberta and Hawaii amongst the leaders. But with the emergence of the first handful of publicly traded companies focusing on hemp — such as Hemp, Inc — you can expect the geography and applications to expend substantially. And, if you can look beyond the stigma associated with cannabis, you might well find a great feedstock for some great applications that’s been unfairly overlooked.
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