Wondering what you smart people have seen in the fiber or Hurd or seed market.
I’ve been looking into Hurd and fiber, specifically to make building products. Obviously there is hempcrete, but I’m thinking more along the lines of building panels (non structural), deck or flooring boards (think trex type material), insulation, etc…
Now the first problem here is actually getting the Hurd or fiber. It seems the best way to separate the two is with a decoricator (sp?), followed by cleanup using various chemicals (I think lye, water, stuff like that). My quick google search didn’t bring up many options for a solution to this step, which is the biggest barrier at the moment. Farmers can easily grow hemp and harvest it with the proper equipment. So that’s major problem #1
Problem #2 is there isn’t much of a market for these products (fiber, Hurd) since there is no existing infrastructure.
Regardless of the market, I think there is huge promise for hemp products in construction and other markets. Construction is just my background so that’s where I naturally look to. I know there was/ is a company in Kentucky (I think) that makes hemp flooring much like bamboo or eucalyptus. I don’t know how successful that is but it’s the only company I could find much info about.
What other products could hemp be readily made into cheaper or better than existing products? What’s stopping that from coming to fruition? Any info on the decoriation and processing of raw materials?
I mean if you were to secure the fiber they could just use it as a replacement in the machines, and presses that they use to make things like floor boards etc. The infrastructure is already in place it’s about coming in at a better price to make it worth the producers time to use that as the main product. It’s been a while but I have seen some of the presses and kilns needed to make things like trex, and flooring. I mean we’re talking millions to get it established as a startup. You could get the machines cheaper if o you were to purchase some older machines, but it’s not like they are swapping that shit out every couple of years. If more efficient processes come up they might change it, but that’s a small might because they’ve gotten that industry pretty streamlined over the years.
It’s an awesome idea, but it would be a matter of having all of the fiber ready to go. I’ll do some reading up on the processes tomorrow just for my own curiosity, but I like where your thoughts are. I would try to initially see about getting some of the bigger places (or smaller) to swap over to the hemp fiber. Everybody already knows how strong the hemp fiber is, it would be a matter of showing the cost feasibility. (If any of that even makes sense!)
The last two or three years of development in hemp have been a roller coaster ride. With all the emphasis on cannabinoids, the promise of Jack Herer gets forgotten but it is still there.
This is where my money would be. OSB is heavy and really useless if it gets water on it. I think it should be possible to produce a hemp alternative at a competitive price. Even if it was more expensive it would be cheaper to ship, labor to install it, probably more weatherproof.
My idea for this would be hurd/ fibers pressed with some sort of adhesive to hold it all together. They use UF for osb, but something with less VOCs would go well with a hemp product, especially for marketing purposes.
Could also go the route of particle board for use in furniture, cabinets, etc…
