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Richard Evans is on a mission to save the world with hemp.
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Richard says hemp is "renewable, sustainable and clean" and can be used to "create foods, proteins, fibres and medicines".If that wasn't enough, Richard also says the plant would be useful for decontaminating soil, storing carbon and could even be a contender to replace the oil industry.
The diverse potential of hemp is why Mirreco created its specialised machine—a world-first invention capable of processing hemp in a new way.
"I realised a few years ago that the bottleneck in the global hemp industry is processing," says Richard.
The machine allows for processing at farms, with rapid conversion into numerous materials that can be used for many purposes.
Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin saved cotton farming in the American South. Perhaps Mirreco's machine could do the same for hemp?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @06:26AM (3 children)
You hit the reality of it.
When the market demands it. It will start to be there.
This story is the same kind of story the stoners like to trout out all the time to justify getting high.
When the market needs it we will see it come back. I do not think people quite realize exactly how cheap oil/coal is. It is wildly cheaper than growing.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:42AM
That's only true as long as you don't pay for the externalities and keep getting massive subsidies. Both are likely to change in near future.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Spamalope on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:20AM
What's that got to do with a primarily fiber product? It'll be financially justified based on that.
It'd be like wood pulp. If you're already running a sawmill, you've got the sawdust from the profitable lumber business. The costs to make wood pulp by itself are irrelevant because it's never done that way.
Using byproducts from hemp fiber production would be the same.
FYI: Good hemp rope feels great in the hand, looks great dyed and makes better knots than dacron. (its 'bite' is better despite feeling soft - many classic knots fail with modern ropes as they're too slippery) If it were made in volume so it's cost competitive it'd be viable, certainly for everything jute rope is used for and many indoor applications where dacron is used but stretch isn't a problem.
I wonder how hemp clothing compares if it's made with the same level of refinement that goes into cotton cloth. The small run cloth I've felt seemed nice enough that cost is likely the limiting factor. You might use it in crop rotation with cotton and do both though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:41PM
the market demand is already there. only pigs and corps preventing it from being met.