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Informative brochure
What is Southemp
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The goal of Southemp is to use hemp to create a great opportunity for agriculture, and for all young people who have to leave the wonderful southern regions of Italy to go abroad or to the north of the country to be able to get a job that allow them to survive. Agriculture is the only possible future in the Italian scenario! And all that comes with it... Hemp is a great opportunity and, by having available the raw material that Southemp produces, many other prospects for the future industry arise. Southemp supports any research project and enterprise related to the world of hemp, helps young people to set up their own hemp business and wants to facilitate any process relating to the use of cannabis. Southemp was founded in June of 2013, to give a chance to hemp to become a reality for the agricultural economy of southern Italy. And here we are, after 2 years, after making the first processing plant, pushing the boundaries and investing in this new business that could change the way we live our world. The idea of ​​making the first processing plant came from long talks on the Carmagnola fields with Felice Giraudo, chairman of Assocanapa - National Association for the cultivation of hemp. On his advice we made a business plan to, to elaborate the economic prospects for the Italian economy of such a new market. Hemp is an opportunity for a healthier life. Hemp is a viable tool for a more prosperous territory and an environment health.
Content
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Intro
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Benefits for the enviroment
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Plant components
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The plant
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Steam components
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Fiber
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Pulp&Paper
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Insulating panels&Fleece
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Biocomposites
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Shivs
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Horse bedding
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Construction
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Others
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Flower
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Seeds
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Hemp oil
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Hemp proteines
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Vitamins&Minerals
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Intro
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In the last decade hemp has been widely promoted as a crop for the future. This is stimulated by new technologies which make hemp suitable for industrial paper manufacturing, use as a renewable energy source, and the use of hemp derivatives as replacement for petrochemical products. The increased demand for health food has stimulated the trade in shelled hemp seed. Hemp oil is increasingly being used in the manufacturing of bodycare products. Hemp is Eco, it’s organic, grows in four months, is sown annually between March and April and then harvested in July. For its cultivation it does not use herbicides, nor chemical fertilizers, nor pesticides. The plant is totally organic and sustainable.
Benefits for the enviroment
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The environmental friendly cultivation of the hemp crop (Cannabis sativa L.) is a key driver for economic success and the future expansion of sustainable hemp products: • Due to its vigorous growth and disease resistance, hemp can be grown without the use of any agrochemicals: this is rare in agriculture today. • In times of increasing monocultures, hemp is an enrichment for agro-biodiversity, a true rotational crop. The processing of hemp into its main products and bi-products such as fibers and shivs requires no chemical additives and no water. When used in its applications it has brought considerable benefits.
Plant components
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The hemp plant is composed by 4 main components. Its trunk,seeds, leaves and flowers. The various components have several different usages due to properties that are specific to each of them. This enable this multifunctional plant to relate, as rough product, to several existing markets such as agriculture, product design, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, construction and food industry.
The plant
The hemp plant has an erect stem whose height can vary from 1 to 4/5 meters on average depending on the variety, the soil, the climatic conditions and even the seeding density.
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Steam components
The section of the stem can vary from a few millimeters to several centimeters. The stem is formed by a green outer bark of fibers held together by pectin and an inner part called shivs. The fiber is a 25/30 percent of the stem and is made up of about 82% cellulose and 6% lignin. The shivs represent the remaining 70/75%, made of about 77% cellulose and 19% lignin. The bigger the plant, the more crude and robust the coarse fiber will be. In the same plant the fiber is thicker toward the root end thinner towards the top.
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Fiber
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Hemp fibers have some of the best mechanical properties of all natural fibers. They are mainly used for specialty pulp and paper, insulation material and for bio-composites in automotive applications.
Pulp&Paper Before the rediscovery of industrial hemp in Europe in the 1990s, hemp fibers where mainly (< 95%) used for speciality pulp and paper. Nevertheless in 2014, hemp pulp and paper with a shear of 55% is still the most important market for European hemp fibers.
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Insulating pannels&Fleece
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Insulation material is the second most important application for hemp fiber today, counting for 26% of the application or if you take out pulp and paper nearly 60%. Together with non woven applications like mulch fleece which are use in gardens and agriculture. Cress growing fleece in some European countries are the dominant medium used for cress cultivation. And other non-wovens such as mats for farrowing pigs - the share of this application group is 30%.
Biocomposites
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Bio-composites account for 15% of the applications, without pulp and paper 33%. The only really established bio-composites market is press (or compression) moulding in automobile interior applications with a share of 96% of all bio-composites. This corresponds to more then 3700 tons of hemp fibers or about 7500 tons of bio-composites (natural fiber content varies between 30 and 70%). Automotive bio-composites for interior application are still a growing market and are used for door panels/inserts, trunk-liners, spare weel covers, parcel treys, head liners, A-B-C columns and much more.
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Shivs
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Mixed with water and lime the shivs (being very rich in silica) undergoe a process of “carbonization” in which the wood is mineralized (turned into stone). In past centuries the shivs or shivs and fiber reduced in small pieces were used as building materials, mixed with clay or lime. The stems have been used to achieve lightweight structures, which were plastered to create ceilings and partitions. The shivs, also called “hemp wood”, has a power of absorption of liquids about 12 times higher than the straw and 3.5 times higher than of wood shavings and equal to 5 times its weight.
Hi performance bedding for horses and other animals like chickens is today the most important market for hemp shivs. Hemp shivs can absorb moisture up to 4 times their dry weight. They are effective for much longer in the stable or poultry house compared to other materials thus saving working time. After use hemp bedding rots down quickly into an excellent compost. Of the total hemp share application equine bedding has a market share of 45% and other bedding 17%.
Horse bedding
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Straw: Excellent insulating properties, quite comfortable but susceptible to mold and can be very dusty. It has little absorbing power, uncomfortable to work with, difficult to dispose of, high volume of manure. It can cause colic to animals if ingested and it’s slippery. Chipboard: Good insulation, average comfortable bedding for the animal, good absorbing power, is easy to manage, but depends on wood, not present everywhere. Possible presence of dust, chemical residue and it accumulates ammonia. It can create colic if ingested. It also has disposal problems since the chip is a special waste and it cant be used as fertilizer. Paper: Great absorbing power, average bed comfortable, easy to work with but meets several problems such as Ink presence, moisture, chemicals, slipperiness and accumulations of Ammonia. Hemp: Excellent absorbing power and insulating, eliminates ammonia vapors. It’s antiseptic = less flies and various insects. It’s easy to handle, the animals do not normally eat it and it’s completely free of dust. It has a very rapid decomposition and it’s an excellent fertilizer.
Construction
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An interesting new and increasing market is using hemp shivs in combination with lime for constructions. Here the market share for shivs is currently 15%. Over the last few years hundreds of private houses have been built in France, UK, and Ireland with this new material, which can be sprayed into a timber frame construction. The material is easy to handle, price competitive, shows good insulation properties for construction materials and it appears to be crack proof, a good tribute for earthquake areas. Eco-construction experts especially are seeing great potential in hemplime-construction. Within the construction market lots of brand are developing new and innovative products and mixtures for construction hemp. Those form structural materials such as brick of compressed hemp and biocomposites structural boards, to finishes composts for walls and flooring.
Construction
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The qualities it offers are beyond anything we get from typical materials, combining energy efficiency found in mass-based construction with the carbon sequestration, rapid renewability, strength, several hundred year wall lifespan, and the breathability and indoor air quality that is unsurpassed. It is an incredible combination, and a list of positive attributes never seen in any other material. Hemp based constructions has some interesting qualities one of which is its ability to pull carbon from the atmosphere while being grown and while in-situ, producing a double edged sword for fighting climate change. Firstly, at the cropping stage, the hemp plants naturally use carbon dioxide for growth at about 22 tons per hectare. Furthermore the building itself continues to sequestrates carbon as lime in the hemp mixture calcifies over time.
Others
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The shivs have some incredible burning properties and one of its usages is as bio fuel made of shivs pallets. Small amount also go to the particle board industry. Hemp shivs can be used to produce lightweight particle boards (half the density).
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Flower
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THC, the well known cannabinoid responsible for the psychotropic effect as well as several pharmaceutical effects, exist in very low concentration in industrial hemp (greater then 0.2%). In recent years, interest has been increasing in the therapeutic potential of another cannabinoid, that do not have any psychoactive effect: even high doses do not cause any relevant side effects. Cannabidiol (CBD) is the primary cannabinoid of industrial hemp, present in concentration in the range of 0.5 to 2% in the upper third of the plant. There is potential for therapeutic use in large numbers of diseases and symptoms. This includes anxiety disorder such as posttraumatic stress disorder, psychosis, epilepsy, dystonia, diabetes, cancer, inflammatory diseases and alzheimer. In addition it may have an effect on skin diseases, hepatitis, obesity as well as ADHD (attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder). CBD can be utilized parallel to hemp fibers and shivs, giving an extra income.
Seeds
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“hemp seeds is a nutritional powerhouse.” Said German-American scientist dr Gero Leson. “It is an excellent source of several critical mineral nutrients and vitamins. Its oil has an outstanding fatty acid spectrum; Its proteine is balanced and easily digested. Moreover well prepared hemp food are very appetizing. I am convinced that hemp seeds have a great food potential. Their nutritional composition and culinary versatility are very much in line with several major trends in the science and marketing of food”. In this comprehensive 1993 book on fat nutrition “Fats that heal, fats that kill”, dr. Udo Erasmus concluded “the best-balance source of essential fatty acids is hemp seeds oil”.
Hemp oil
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Todays hemp oil is typically a cold-pressed gourmet oil from mature welldryer seeds. the most unique nutritional feature is the “almost perfect” balance of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids plus the presents of two “higher” omega 3-6 fatty acids, stearidonic acid (STA) and gamma linoleic acid (GLA). These offer known healing benefits and are found in only few other vegetables oils - yet nowhere as balanced and tasty as in hemp oil. A gross imbalance in the omega-3/6 ratio in the Western diet is now considered an important contributor to the high occurrence of inflammatory, cardiovascular, skin and even mental disorder. As a balanced source of this fatty acids, hemp oil and seeds can help reduced their occurrence, in good taste.
Unsaturated fatty acids: ~90% Oleic acid (18:1 omega-9): 10—15% Linoleic acid (18:2 omega-6): 55—60% Alpha-linolenic acid (18:3 omega-3): 17—20% Gamma-linolenic acid (18:3 omega-6): 2—4% Stearidonic acid (18:4 omega-3): 0.5—2% Saturated fatty acids: ~10%
Hemp Proteine
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Hemp seeds and seed cake flour contain an high quality proteine. It is easily digestible and contains all essential amino acids in a balanced ratio that satisfies the proteine needs of adults. Commercially available proteine flour and powders are high in proteine and dietary fibers. They are used in shakes and smoothies, as well as for baking.
Energy content: Fat: Protein: Total Carbohydrate: Ash:
580 kcal (2,430kj) 45 g 35 g 8 g (Fibre:6g) 6g
Vitamins&Minerals
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Hemp seeds, nuts and flour also offer a bonanza of micro nutrients that are often laking in our diet. These hemp seeds materials are good or even excellent sources of magnesium, manganese, iron, zinc and potassium - of several B1, B3 and B5 vitamins. Hemp seeds also contain significant amounts of phytosterols and of tocopherols, I.E. members of the Vitamin E complex. Overall, the nutrition richness and culinary versatility of Hemp seeds and their products make them an excellent basis for a healthy diet and a range of food products.
Phosphorus: Magnesium: Manganese: Iron: Zink: Vit B1 (thiamine): Vit B3 (niacine): Vit B5 (panthotenic): Vit E (tocopherol):
130% 150% 450% 90% 60% 90% 30% 90% 20%
Risoprint on 80 gsm cream hemp paper