The proven formula for success sure is definitely the missing piece. Definitely some nice shares on here for options. Personally I see OSB before I see more hempcrete. Followed by more refined plastics and printing. Hempcrete 3D printing & hemp plastic 3D printing are staring us all down.
I would love to see all the spent biomass I create go to building my next home…
built using supersacks?
I know a few research scientists that work on corn polymers. We are talking big time University grant type team and lab, they have a polymer SOP for a soap dispersant that it like worth millions appon millions. I have a feeling they are going to be highly guarded.
Hemp plastics are currently way too expensive for 99.9% of use cases, whether you’re going full bioplastic or just using hurd as a replacement for talc/calcium carbonate filler. There’s probably been a 50% drop in industrial hemp cultivation from last year in the US, so it’s hard to get enough feedstock to make anything in bulk, much less filling orders for one of the world’s highest volume industries.
Just start playing with hempcrete and hemp-lime plaster, it’s straightforward and cheap to test. And when you git gud don’t worry about saturation - there can be one hempcrete contractor/builder every 40 miles and you’ll likely never step on each other’s toes.
For hempcrete start out using a European brand of hurd like Kanabat or Dun Agro - the Dutch and French processing standards are way higher than the US, at least until we start getting real processing facilities built out.
One of these
Wil be placed and I would like to process the
End products of this unit to higher valeu products
Reason I started this tread
Someone in Europe is buying one of those? I’ve never seen one work…
Africa !
Here’s the first permitted Hempcrete Building in Michigan we just finished this weekend. Spray applied with Kannabat. The only US made hurd that has reached a building grade so far that I have seen are from South Bend Hemp in Kansas or Tiger Fiber in Missouri
And the lime binder is really the critical component. You want to use a hydrated lime mixed with some hydraulic lime + a pozzolan mix to help with consistency and dry time. But there is probably going to be a whole market for this people developing proprietary binders and selling them pre mixed with hurd bags like quickcrete.
Dun Agro is also planning to set up a pre fabricated building material facility in Indiana next year. It will be interesting to see how it does though because so far the European genetics have been hit or miss here in the states… and I’ve heard a lot of funny business around Albert Dun lol
No waterproofing necessary! Hempcrete will passively regulate humidity, and its super high pH from the lime makes it extremely mold resistant. So you’d actually want to use a breathable plaster, like something earthen, clay plasters and lime washes are pretty popular.
Where’s it at? I wanna see!
Awesome! I met Kim and Stephanie at an event last year in PA, great to see them doing well. Did you use an Ereasy machine to spray?
Yeah Kim and Stephanie are great and they did an awesome job getting this together and we did use the Ereasy, Cameron was out there as well leading the team! The Ereasy is definitely awesome and a great tool but at the end of the day its really a first generation machine.
I will be very excited to see what kind of innovation comes from the application side. I would imagine the mixes and additives will vary widely which will make things interesting from a permitting and performance standpoint.
Hemp Lime in the ratios that are used for spray, and cast in place, have a few years of performance testing and plenty of case studies and is already into the ICC code which makes it easy to get them permitted usually. Where as the 3d printer will need an entirely different ratio/hurd size plus probably much more additives, so I wonder how that will sustain the great performance properties hemp crete has, also its low environmental impact and ability to get signed off on with an engineer or city permit? Just going to be an interesting ride getting into the mainstream of the construction industry lol
Its in Chelsea Michigan, the first house in this community development → https://neighborwood.us/
Super random, but I was reading more into Dun Agro’s Dutch structures today and remembered your post from months back. What is the funny business re: Dun?
