Increasing demand for European hemp fibres

11 May '10

5 min read

Furthermore new trends are becoming apparent: the automotive manufacturers do not only want to use bio-based materials, but also want to show them to their customers. While up to now natural fibre construction parts have disappeared under a lamination, thus becoming invisible to the customer, in the near future vehicles will be released on the market that will exhibit the natural fibres under transparent films or lacquers, showing completely new surface effects. Another trend can be noticed in the development of making the plastics matrix bio-based as well, i.e. producing interior parts from PLA or bio-based PP and natural fibres. While such 100% bio-based compounds will soon be found in Japanese cars, in Europe this still will take a while.

With demand increasing again, new concepts and the support of bio-based products by politics, sales of 40,000 to 50,000 t of natural fibres could be achieved in Europe by 2015, at least 10-20% of which could be supplied by European hemp.

Insulation materials and many other applications
The second road to success are hemp insulation materials of which about 3,000 to 4,000 tons are produced annually and put on the market in the EU. The most important manufacturers and users are Germany, France and Great Britain respectively. The hemp insulation material properties are very good and appreciated by customers. Achieving bigger sales markets is solely hampered by the relatively high price compared to mineral fibre insulation materials. Here only suitable economic-political framework conditions can be of help. Apart from the automotive and construction industry, there are numerous applications with a smaller volume such as briefcases, other cases, various consumer goods (e.g. letter scales, battery chargers, toys) or trays of grinding/sanding disc and urns. The latter are a good example of a 100% bio-based product: The urns are produced from PLA, reinforced by hemp fibres, and are fully biodegradable.

As well as the examples mentioned, in addition to the aforementioned compression moulding, injection moulding plays an important role. The increasing availability of high-grade natural fibre injection moulding granulates will help to quickly develop new applications here.

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European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA)

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