HISTORY
Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is one of the most versatile plants known, both with respect to its’ potential uses and its vast geographic growth suitability. Its use in the written record dating back over 6000 years, China was the main initial player with hemp, first using it commercially for rope, paper, and in clothing about 5000 years ago. It wasn’t until the 1600’s in Europe that hemp really came in to prominence for use as a textile, when its’ wet strength and tear resistance properties became known. Though it found its’ way into a multitude of industries, its’ main focus surrounded sea-faring efforts (sails, ropes, flags, uniforms, etc.), where its’ new found mechanical properties enabled it to excel. In the 1700’s, the European textile industry took the hemp development further by mixing it with other fibers, such as flax and wool, to create hybrid materials. As this was being done, hemp pulp was being made from the by-product of the hemp textiles, and used for making paper. The hemp paper industry slowly developed until it came to a screeching halt in the mid 1800’s when paper making from wood pulp was developed. This period highlighted the decline of hemp’s use, as other developments such as cotton spinning began to take market share in the textile segment, as did the inevitable development of synthetic materials starting in the early 1900’s. These declines, coupled with marijuana prohibition, put tremendous pressure on the industrialized use of hemp. It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that some of the prohibition bans against hemp began to be lifted, bringing hemp as an industrial material back into favor.
PRODUCTS:
- Hemp SEEDS/OIL
- Hemp PAPER
- Hemp COSMETICS
- Hemp TEXTILES/FABRIC
- Hemp ANIMAL BEDDING
- Hemp CONSTRUCTION USES
HEMP ATTRIBUTES/BENEFITS
- Fast and robust growth: It can grow up to 20’ in height, and during that time anchoring up to 6’ of root growth in to the soil, providing tremendous benefit for soil erosion and earth stabilization. In addition, hemp output per acre is 3x that of cotton (and at the same time, the cotton industry uses 26% of all pesticides used globally in farming, but only accounts for 3% of what is being farmed).
- Pesticide-free: no pesticides or herbicides are needed to ensure hemps’ growth.
- Strength: hemp is seven times stronger than cotton fiber.
- Carbon Sequestration: Hemp, with its’ ability to be harvested 3 times a year, acts as a tremendous carbon sequester. In addition when used in certain applications with a long life-span (insulation mats for example), the net carbon sink attributes increase.
- Phytoremediation Potential: Hemp can deactivate (ie: render harmless) certain chemicals and toxins in the soil, a natural alternative to mechanical cleaning methods such as soil extraction or pumping polluted groundwater.
USES
Hemp is a tremendously versatile material, and can be used in the production of thousands of products, with the potential uses increasing almost daily. Largely in an unprocessed state, hemp can be used as a food item, both directly as a seed item supplying critical nutrients, but also as oil. Also, it has value as a by-product of its’ own waste stream when used to make textiles and fabrics, as the waste (called hurd) is used to make paper. The use as insulative animal bedding is also a robust industry segment, as the hemp is over 7 times more absorbent than straw. Hemp can be converted into bio-fuels, both for heating applications in pellet form, and through chemical pyrolysis processing to convert for use in the production of ethanol, methane, and other important industrial materials.
RELATION TO MARIJUANA
Hemp being a derivative of marijuana tends to get a bad rap out of the gates, unjustly so. Though inherently being part of the same family as marijuana (Cannabis Sativa), it has very minor amounts of the active ingredient, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the amount less than 0.2% for hemp) that most are concerned with relative to it being part of the marijuana family. In addition, hemp thrives on high density growth, much higher than is suitable for marijuana. Due to the fear and political association hemp has to marijuana it is largely banned in North America. If hemp could be incorporated in the a multitude of durable goods, it would lock carbon from being released back into the atmosphere, and at the same time, if it was valued for its’ industrial attributes relative to the fiber stack (and not feared), a whole new industry could be developed in conjunction with the increasing acceptance of marijuana as a viable and accepted medical treatment. A recent study done in Europe has shown that medical marijuana growth can sequester 22 tons of carbon dioxide per hectacre. If you consider that with suitable crop rotation (like leguminous crops like peas), you will get 2 harvests of the medical marijuana per year, which will bring the sequestration value to approximately 4400 ton per year per farm. With carbon credits of between $30-50/ton, this will add between $130,000 -220,000 of revenue to a farmers’ yearly operation. What is critical is that the carbon hoarding stalk material on the plants is not burned or incinerated, but used in other industrial applications. Really, it is a win-win.
FUTURE USES
In 2007 at proceeding at the 4th International Conference of the European Industrial Hemp Association, it was highlighted that there is an increasing global interest in hemp raw materials due to other raw material shortages. The consensus was that hemp will definitely play an integral role in the growing bioeconomy, as it is a viable substitute for use in many fossil fuel-based and petrochemical products, from industrial fibers, to biofuels (solid and liquid), to the budding segment of green chemicals.
In China, there are large growth rates for hemp in the paper and automotive industry, as well as a reinforcement fiber in window frames and in interior and exterior flooring and paneling products. In Europe, much is being done with textiles and fabrics, as well as significant research is being conducted on short strand hemp for use in plastic as reinforcement. This will not only affect the plastics used in the automobiles in the future, it will open up different potential applications relative to plastic, which will inevitably translate into a considerable growth of the amount of material in cultivation throughout Europe. In North America, hemp has mainly been cultivated for the food industry, and this being done in Canada since industrial cultivation of hemp is the US is banned, but its’ use in bioplastic developments seems to be an area of strong interest.
