Hemp: A Green Solution for our Addiction to Plastics

Artikel auf Deutsch: www.hanf-magazin.com/tm2

von Thatcher Michelsen founder of EatMoreHemp and Hemp3D

Humans have a frightening addiction to plastics – and it’s only getting worse. In the USA, only 14 % of recyclable plastics are collected and only 5 % are actually processed, therefore 95 % of plastics are single use and end up in the landfill – or worse – our oceans. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has projected that, if things don’t change, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans. This is a catastrophic situation, which requires urgent affordable, sustainable and scalable solutions. Attempting to reduce the usage of plastics and increase recycling programs will only help so much, we urgently need a redesign of the system and majorly shift of the raw materials used in the production of all this plastic.

Luckily as it turns out hemp has what it takes to answer this important calling. Hemp oil, lignins, fibers, and hurd are incredibly versatile and can be produced both sustainably and profitably. These impressive hemp raw biomaterials can be used to make thousands of different products, including bioplastics, biopolymers, and biocomposites. Having not been grown commercially in the USA for over 78 years, the recent trends in legalizing hemp’s industrial cultivation provide new economic opportunities for this highly versatile crop. Although, in order for hemp to have the positive environmental impact that it’s capable of, we still need full legalization on a federal level as well as federal government backed subsidies and investments to stimulate the new growth.

Hemp plastics have yet to replace even a small fraction of petroleum based plastics; although there are signs of major industry adopting them because they are stronger, lighter and non-toxic. Automobile manufactures BMW and Mercedes Benz are currently using hemp-based bioplastics for door panel and headliner insulation. In the new BMW i3 hemp has been used for performance weight saving material and as aesthetic design appeal. Designer Benoit Jacob says the use of natural materials like hemp makes the i3's interior feel like "a small loft on wheels." Thankfully these two car manufactures are not the only companies using hemp biomaterials, there are a number of exciting startup companies taking advantage of the opportunity to both help the environment and make profits. This article will provide a look at the current hemp bioplastics and biomaterials landscape in North America.

A young company based in Fargo, North Dakota called c2renew, inc. develops performance driven biocomposite materials that offer price stability and a greener alternative. They have a niche in the industrial composites space due to a high competency on biomaterials, and this is unique for where they exist in the supply chain. Having worked with major companies like John Deere, Bobcat, Appareo and Toshiba to produce biocomposite plastic parts at scale, initially they noticed that these big companies only cared about cost competitiveness; but now as they are evolving and paying attention to sustainability, they are open to looking at the added environmental value as well.

This sustainable value add is something that innovative and responsible smaller companies and startups enjoy and leverage into success. For example, earthkind an up-and-coming brand selling a new kind of all natural air fresheners and rodent repellent, turned to c2renew for help on designing a high performance and attractive product using biocomposite plastics. Another example of a startup company with which they are working with is a 3D printer filament company called 3DFUEL. Together, they created three different types of bioplastic filament: Entwined, made from hemp, Wound Up, made from coffee waste and Buzzed, made from beer brewing waste.

A company based in Texas called Greenspring Technologies is using this “entwined” hemp bioplastic filament to make executive pens and other gadgets like guitar picks. The owner Mark Linday, says that they have now stepped up to injection mold production of the hemp plastic pens and that one was used recently to sign new hemp legislation in Pennsylvania.

The cofounder and CTO of c2renew Dr. Chad Ulven is an associate professor at North Dakota State University and a researcher at The Center for Sustainable Materials Science – A Research approach at NDSU, funded by the National Science Foundation for 5 years. The main strategic goal is to develop and launch a transformative approach to the development of sustainable materials derived from agricultural materials as a means to replace petrochemical polymeric materials in day-to-day use. This is a large group of scientists, encompassing Agricultural Engineering to Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering and more.

Materials research and production scaling is a critical first step in the bioplastics manufacturing revolution. It is clear that it will be the younger generation of entrepreneurs that will bring these products to market, such as recent University of Colorado Leeds School of Business graduates and founders of Sana Packaging James Eichner and Ron Basak-Smith. Less than a year ago, these young entrepreneurs started their hemp plastics packaging company as a school project while in college. By then they were accepted into the Canopy Boulder Accelerator program. Having just graduated from both business school and the accelerator program at the same time in May of 2017, they have since been working fulltime on growing their business. Sana Packaging is focused on producing attractive, environmentally-sound, safe packaging for the medical and recreational cannabis markets. They have an impressive lead on this market niche and believe that it will afford them the ability to reinvest and expand into other markets.

Sunstrand, another technically advanced biomaterials company, is doing some very impressive work in Louisville, Kentucky. Sunstrand is the number one supplier of biomaterials for technical applications in the USA. CEO Trey Riddle and his team claim to have perfected the industrial process of bast cleaning, or decorticating equipment that separates the hemp hurd and fiber. Other processes are then performed to meet materials manufacturing specifications. They then supply biomaterials to upstream manufacturers for product creation.

Sunstrand’s products and operations have been designed to deliver consistent, high quality materials compatible with a large number of applications, emphasizing bulk feedstocks for plastics, polymer composites and non-woven manufacturing industries. By sourcing materials locally and creating advanced innovative processing technologies, they are helping manufacturers create high performing, attractive and sustainable products. Until Sunstrand, replacing traditional materials had never before been thought possible.

Sunstrand is currently operating a pilot scale processor at 3,000 tons per year, with plans to build multiple industrial scale processing plants in key geographic regions, each capable of over 22,000 tons per year.

Perhaps the most technologically advanced biomaterials processing company in the country is PureVision Technology, Inc., a 24-year-old, Colorado-based bio refinery technology company. They have launched and provided subsidiary PureHemp with exclusive, global refining technology and marketing rights to produce hemp-based raw materials and products. PureHemp has already proven out their hemp refining technology called Continuous Countercurrent Reactor, at pilot scale with very encouraging results generated. Plans are underway to develop a small, commercial scale, 4 ton per day CCR, targeted to go into operation this year, followed by a 40 ton per day CCR planned to go into production in late 2018 or early 2019. Employing the PureHemp CCR technology will add significant value to the emerging industry by utilizing the entire hemp plant for the economic production of hemp-based products. In addition to traditional products, there are novel products that can be produced from hemp using the PureHemp CCR technology – specifically pulp, lignin, sugars and extracts.

Hemp can even be used to make futuristic materials beyond just the plastics, polymers and composites. Researchers in NYC and elsewhere have successfully used hemp to make a carbon nanotube alternative made from graphene, called HempPhene. Depending on how it is made, HempPhene can be 100 times stronger and 1,000 times lighter than steel! The most fascinating thing about this is that HempPhene can be produced at a fraction of the cost of producing manmade graphene, because the plant does much of the work for us. It is very likely that very soon, we will see futuristic Hemp- Phene based infrastructure: bridges, skyscrapers and much more all built out of Hemp!

In conclusion: it’s fun to imagine a future where plastic is no longer a bad thing. Yet if we want to live in that reality, as consumers we must demand, expect and support the adoption and widespread use of hemp bioplastics. There’s an opportunity to shift the tide of industry and use it to help protect the environment instead of destroy it.