The mobile decorticator - the beginning of the Hemp Revolution

By Adrian Francis K. Clarke.
Source: HempLifestyleMagazine.com

My brother, Tony, and I started working on industrial hemp
processing in 1994 when our research showed us that it would be a
very difficult crop to make successful in Australia because of the
need for retting in order to separate the outer bast fibre from the
inner pithy core or hurd.

We do not have enough dew to enable field or dew retting and we
could not use the quantities of water required for water retting.
So we had to find a completely new way to process hemp if an
industry were to develop in Australia. We developed decortication
of both green and dry UNRETTED hemp stems - a revolutionary, and to
the traditional Europeans, a heretical concept.

The law was also against the cultivation of hemp because the USA
Administration had convinced almost all Western governments, the
State of Victoria included, that hemp was marijuana.

Along with developing our decortication systems with my
father-in-law, Chas Mierisch, my brother and I lobbied the Kennett
Liberal Government of Victoria to be allowed to grow hemp.

Being a progressive Liberal with an interest in Rural and Regional
Industrial development, Kennett allowed R & D crops for 3 years to
prove to all that hemp was not, and did not turn into, marijuana.
Thus giving the lie to the USA assertions.

Kennett then legalised hemp production in the 1998 Spring session
of Parliament. It took another 18 months for the new National Party
Agriculture Minister, Pat McNamara to provide the regulation for
the new bill. McNamara had replaced Bill McGrath as Minister.
McGrath had been a strong advocate for the industry and had tried
to have the regulation in place for the summer of 1998. McNamara
had been Police minister before the change of ministry and probably
remains sceptical and conservative to this day.

However, during that time, we were able to perfect our basic
decortication technology and also to develop degumming technology
so that we could spin the fibre on standard cotton machines. This
was a series of world first revolutionary technological
breakthroughs. Green decortication was revolutionary. Unretted dry
decortication was revolutionary. Enzyme degumming of the skins was
revolutionary. Industrialised Kier degumming was also
revolutionary. Spinning hemp on standard cotton machines was also
revolutionary. This created an entirely new type and class of fine
bast fibre. We did all this in Victoria under the helpful watch of
the Kennett Liberal Government.

The textile section of this work was done at the International
Fibre Centre (IFC) at Deakin University, Geelong, which was set up
by Kennett for the purpose of making Victoria world leaders in
fibre and textile R & D for all fibres including alpaca, biodynamic
wool and the fibre types we can produce with our decorticator;
including hemp, flax, ramie, kenaf and agave.

In 2000, the incoming Bracks Labour Government brought this
progress to a crashing halt when they broke up the IFC in Geelong
and much of the vital equipment went into storage with the CSIRO.
It has only recently been re-activated since the Bailieu Liberal
Government came into power. It is yet to be determined if the
Bailieu government is a Conservative or a Liberal government
looking for new industries to enliven the rural sector. So far they
have given farmers new hemp growing licenses so hemp can be grown
in Victoria for the first time in nearly 12 years.

In the light of this limited 'liberalisation' of the industry and
the prospect that hemp foods may be legalised in accordance with
the FSANZ recommendations, we have made further investment, dusted
off our machine, set it up for operation and proven the technology
once again.

Our decorticator has been set up in a static frame for small crops.
When there are larger crops it will be installed in a harvesting
platform. It is expected to be able to process a hectare per hour
when in a harvester. That production rate is roughly equivalent to
the production of 3 tonnes of fibre and 7 tonnes of hurd per hour
depending on the crop and its variety. It is also the equivalent
production rate of the multi-million dollar centralised European
hemp processing mills. Our primary process can be done economically
and without huge capital investment on the farm before the value
added products leave the farm gate.

Until hemp is decorticated, it has no real value because nothing
can be done with the whole stem. Once it is decorticated, it
becomes two valuable products; the bast fibre which can replace
fibreglass in many applications and also be made into quality
textiles for apparel and furnishings; and the secondary product,
the hurd which is used as animal bedding, cellulose plastics, and
highly insulating building products such as the internationally
acclaimed types of Hempcrete.

Already the discerning consumer is buying hemp seed products and
enjoying the health benefits that the seed and its oil provides.
This is so, even though the products must be labelled, 'not for
human consumption in Australia", because the Australian Federal
Government has yet to accept the rigorous FSANZ recommendation that
the foods be legalised.

Once that hemp food legalisation is completed, the hemp industry
will be able to stand firmly on the three solid industrial and
commercial legs: Fibre, Hurd and Food. Then it will be a true
industry we can develop in all its aspects because of our
invention; the small, efficient, low-cost farm based decorticator.

Utilising our basic technology to decorticate and to degum, the new
hemp and bast industry can begin here in Victoria and spread
throughout Australia and internationally. We await the new Liberal
governments in the Australian States to remember they are Liberal
and Progressive and thus leave behind the misleading reactionary
and conservative labels.

If they do so, we will quickly achieve the development of the
industry along with new commercial and industrial activities
throughout the regional areas because value adding of this product
can be done where it is grown - right on the farm.

They will prove once and for all that they are progressive and
supportive of local industry and country people by helping to
create a lasting platform for the development of rural based
industry and commerce where real wealth is created on the farm with
this extraordinary plant and our appropriate technology which
instantly unlocks its value by decorticating it on the farm.

 

To watch the decorticator in action, visit:

http://budurl.com/58cc

http://budurl.com/j9va