New financing from American investors brings a Vancouver company closer to commercializing its hemp fibre technology, a process it hopes will create a fibre industry for the Prairies.
“We just received $1.3 million US. It is going toward our pilot project plants to perfect our Crailar system,” said Jason Finnis, founder and president of Hemptown Clothing.
Private equity investors from the United States have been following the progress of Crailar Fibre Technologies Inc., a division of Hemptown Clothing, said Finnis.
Crailar is an organic, eco-friendly fabric not yet on the market, derived from Hemptown’s new hemp processing technology.
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Finnis hopes Crailar will compete with cotton and fibreglass. Last year the company announced a plan to build a Crailar processing mill by 2007 in Craik, Sask., where Hemptown already owns 80 acres of land for hemp production.
The National Research Council of Canada Institute for Biological Sciences is doing research for Hemptown on enzyme technology to shift the retting process, a key part of hemp fibre production, from one dependent on the whims of nature to a controllable and fast industrial process.
“Traditionally, hemp fibre has been processed in about 60 days,” Finnis said. “What our Crailar system is able to do is expedite that process to five hours in an enzymatic-type bath.
“We’re pioneering this industry and we are experiencing all the hurdles from technical to, well, basically every type of hurdle you can think of,” said Finnis.
“The investment is certainly helping propel this industry in Canada.”
Traditionally, farmers cut the mature hemp, leaving the swaths on the ground to begin the retting process. Micro-organisms in the soil produce enzymes that dissolve the glue-like substance that binds the outer hemp fibres to the inner woody core.
“The bugs can absorb it (the glue) as food, as nutrients, and leave the fibre alone for you to harvest,” said Wing Sung, NRC’s investigator into the enzymatic technique.
The precarious nature of retting makes the procedure unattractive, Wing said. The micro-organisms need rain to live and, in turn, the hemp needs the soil bugs to ret. Rainfall is difficult to predict, providing no guarantee the process will be successful.
“You are at the mercy of nature,” Wing added.
Hemptown is developing the enzyme bath to take the place of retting.
“If you use an enzyme process, you are working inside a factory or in a mill. You have the enzyme, you mix it up, and you put the hemp plant in it and then the enzyme would do the job for sure. It’s more or less the same,” said Wing. “We just bypass the micro.”
The enzymatic bath results in a strong, soft and flexible fibre, known as Crailar. Finnis said enough research has been done to begin prototype trials in a pilot plant.
“We are working right now, talking with groups in Saskatchewan and Alberta, looking for the most ideal place to conduct these tests,” he said.
Wing said the NRC would not be involved in the pilot tests.
“Some other institute will do it but we will explain to them the procedure and they would interpret it and try to create the same kind of environment in the trial run.”
Wing said the NRC’s laboratory work would need to be scaled up.
“It’s difficult to estimate the quality and also the economics,” Wing said. “If it costs a million to make just a bundle of fibre, then it’s no good. So the trial run is very important.”
Finnis expects Crailar products will compete in the textile and composite markets. Moulded fibre parts for boats and automobiles will be a new market for Hemptown, which now sells hemp clothing.
“What I can tell you is that the fibre, as our tests are showing now, will be cheaper than cotton and cheaper than fibreglass,” Finnis said. “So it will save producers, it will definitely save them money by using Crailar fibre over traditional fibres.”
The shorter processing period enhances Crailar’s cost competitiveness, said Finnis. A report from Hemptown based on future prices indicates Crailar’s production cost would be 52 cents per pound of hemp versus 76 cents
for cotton.
Crailar technology is expected to eventually produce millions of bales of organic, white fibre. Hemptown seeded several varieties of hemp this year on 60 of its 80 acres.
Finnis said other factors such as reduced pesticide and chemical use make hemp fibre more attractive. Pests avoid the hemp plant due to its bad taste and it suppresses weeds because of its dense growth.
“Even if the trial run proves to be successful, we need to continue to improve on this because you can never say you have arrived,” said Wing. “You may say it’s economical today, but the second you have another competitor, you better improve your process.”
