BioRegional Hemp Textiles

BioRegional are currently coordinating a 2 year DTI-funded research project, started in 2005, aiming to develop an economic process for UK hemp textiles production working with industry, farmers and university researchers. This could provide new, high value markets for sustainably-grown hemp supporting agricultural diversification and strengthened regional economies.

This project aims to develop a scientifically-based process to produce a high quality, predictable and cost-effective textile fibre from hemp. Recent trials have found that liberating useful fibre from the binding pectins and gums of hemp is not well understood as a process, and current processes in the UK are limited. Hemp textiles were shown to have significantly lower environmental impact than cotton or polyester in a recent ecological footprinting study. The UK textiles industry, facing competition from cheaper imports, will benefit from a stably-priced locally-produced textile with middle to higher end cotton-type and specialist market demand. The project will identify the nature and location of fibre-associated pectic polymers, gums and cell wall factors using novel immunomicroscopy procedures. This has never been applied to hemp and should lead to novel techniques to break-down, dissolve and remove pectic polymers and gums liberating the useful fibre. The project will also develop harvesting machinery and incorporate the new techniques into a system suitable for UK farmers. The resulting fibre from trials will then be spun and samples and garments produced by textiles manufacturers and retailers.

Project partners include:
Cranfield University – Agricultural engineers

University of Leeds - Centre for Technical Textiles & Centre for Plant Sciences

JL Brierley Ltd, Huddersfield – Short staple yarn spinners

Nonwovens Research Group – Conducting trials for medical textiles and composites

Hemcore Ltd – Growers, processors and marketers of Industrial Hemp

Rafex European Ltd– Bast fibres and textiles consultant

Central Science Laboratory – Providing greenhouse hemp plants for use in trials

Hemp for these trials is being grown in greenhouses at Central Science Laboratories, and by Hemcore in fields for the 2006 harvest sown at the higher seed rate required for textile production near Southend, Essex. Costs and logistics of the agronomic systems involved will be identified, and the environmental benefits of hemp compared to cotton or synthetic fibres will be further quantified, building on earlier ecological footprinting and Life Cycle Analyses. The project aims to produce a high quality consistent textile fibre suitable for spinning on the cotton system, improving the commercial potential of hemp textile fibre. BioRegional intend to gather a consortium of partners with a view to scaling up the processes tested and making UK textiles production viable in the future.

Last updated 14th January 2008