{"id":102332,"date":"2021-11-09T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T06:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=102332"},"modified":"2021-12-18T13:35:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T12:35:47","slug":"hemp-the-next-disruptor-in-construction-after-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/hemp-the-next-disruptor-in-construction-after-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Hemp: The Next Disruptor in Construction After Wood?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Concrete, steel, and wood comprise the triumvirate of structural building materials today. Most buildings contain all three in some capacity and employ one as a predominant framing medium. Architects and engineers default to these materials so regularly that the market seems impenetrable to alternatives. And yet, a fourth option may enter the picture\u2014and become the next disruptive technology in building structure, after mass timber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hemp is growing in popularity as a building product. This nonpsychoactive form of the cannabis plant has been utilized for years to make rope, insulation, bioplastics, and other industrial materials due to its strength and rapid growth. Until recently, hemp has remained a peripheral product\u2014the most familiar of which is Hempcrete<\/a>\u2014in the construction industry. However, it is becoming an increasingly viable option for more common building elements due to developments related to its similarities to\u2014and differences from\u2014wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is now widely appreciated, wood\u2019s carbon sequestration capabilities\u2014and its resulting favorable carbon footprint compared with concrete and steel\u2014have helped lead to its increased use in building construction. However, the resurgence of interest in engineered lumber has raised renewed concerns about overharvesting and deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the U.S. Farm Bill was amended in 2018<\/a> to legalize agricultural hemp, entrepreneurs and product manufacturers began to take note. Like wood, hemp stores carbon. However, hemp\u2019s rapid growth makes for a superior carbon-capture feedstock. Hemp can be cultivated in 90 to 120 days<\/a>, 100 times faster than oak trees. The plant also sequesters four times more carbon than a similarly sized forest. Hemp absorbs more than 20 metric tons<\/a> [PDF] of carbon per hectare, and its ability to be harvested biannually effectively doubles this quantity. According to GoodEarth Resources<\/a>, an Australian eco-energy consultancy, \u201cIndustrial hemp has been scientifically proven to absorb more CO2<\/sub> per hectare than any forest or commercial crop and is therefore the ideal carbon sink.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Engineered
Engineered hardwood flooring by HempWood – courtesy HempWood\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Many hemp building products utilize the plant\u2019s fibers in somewhat predictable ways, such as for weaving textiles or reinforcing cementitious materials. However, manufacturers are now creating \u201creverse-engineered\u201d wood alternatives<\/a>in the form of pressed hemp boards and blocks. In Murray, Ky., Fibonacci manufactures lumber, flooring, cabinets, frames, and furniture with hemp plants harvested within a 100-mile radius for its product, HempWood<\/a>. The company subjects the plant fibers to high heat before compressing them in molds with a soy-based adhesive, or wood glue. Fibonacci\u2019s aim was to recreate oak\u2019s stability, hardness, and density in a workable, hardwoodlike material. HempWood may be cut, sanded, and finished like oak and is nearly twice as strong, according to its manufacturer. \u201cThe whole idea is to take something that\u2019s weak and grows fast, and transform it into a replacement for something that\u2019s strong and grows slow,\u201d HempWood founder Greg Wilson said in a HempBuildMag<\/em> interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durham, N.C.\u2013based startup Plantd<\/a> has similar aspirations. Co-founders Josh Dorfman and Huade Tan launched the company after searching for suitable biomass alternatives to trees. They recognized that hemp\u2019s significant strength and carbon performance make it an optimal feedstock for residential building applications. With funding from a North Carolina Idea Seed grant, the manufacturer is prototyping a hemp-based OSB. By creating their own manufacturing processes\u2014which are nimbler, as well as more mobile and economically accessible, than lumber mill machinery\u2014Dorfman and Tan claim that the surrogate material will also be less expensive. According to the Dorfman, a new OSB plant can cost $400 million to construct, while a new Plantd facility costs $1 million. \u201cOur approach eliminates the need for an eight-story tall, 4 million-pound press that the entire industry relies upon,\u201d Dorfman says. \u201cInstead, we build microfactories that are distributed near or in the markets where most houses are being built.\u201d Unlike trees, hemp is a viable crop throughout much of the U.S., enabling a localization of farming and manufacturing that the engineered wood industry cannot attain. Furthermore, hemp can be dried in the same field from which it is harvested and does not require the energy-intensive industrial drying process of green timber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Plantd
Plantd hemp-based OSB prototype<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dorfman and Tan are eyeing Elon Musk\u2019s $100 million XPrize for Carbon Removal<\/a>, a four-year competition that aspires to remove 1 gigaton of atmospheric CO2 annually. In the first stage, the contest requires a demonstration of sequestering 1,000 tons of CO2 per year until 2025, which Dorfman claims can be accomplished with a little less than 100 houses worth of hemp OSB. \u201cOur goals are to reach gigaton scales of CO2 capture, which requires producing materials at the scale of the timber, steel, and concrete industries,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, the advantages of modern lumber provide leverage to its newfound competitor. Wood\u2019s newfound popularity is due to its beneficial carbon footprint, renewable growth, and advances in processing\u2014but hemp scores even better in these areas. Additionally, the ability for farmers to participate in an emerging, distributed economy is a plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, hemp building products may remain confined to shorter spans and interior applications in the near term. HempWood lumber, for example, is currently limited to 6-foot lengths and use indoors. The processing is similar to that of laminated veneer lumber, which was designed to make use of smaller and more varied species of trees and also is largely inadequate for exterior applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Plantd's
courtesy Plantd Plantd’s 2×4 hemp prototypes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In time, however, hemp will begin to compete with concrete, steel, and wood\u2014particularly in the residential construction arena. This transformation has only been accelerated by the recent scarcity of lumber, leading to escalated prices<\/a>. After launching its structural panels, Plantd aims to introduce structural framing elements, starting with laminated strand lumber for stud-framing applications. The company will also manufacture hemp I-joists made from OSB and LSL components. \u201cFor the housing market, our goal is to eventually offer builders the entire framing package,\u201d Dorfman says. \u201cWe’re working to introduce all of these products to the market as fast as possible. Our manufacturing technology enables us to produce all of these products from multiple production lines within the same factory, an industry first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hemp-based building products exhibit significant potential structural, economic, and carbon advantages and could represent a disruptive technology in building. Many challenges remain, and such transformation will take time. In theory, if enough new structures are built with hemp instead of concrete, steel, or timber, the construction industry could shift dramatically toward net-zero carbon. \u201cAt that point,\u201d Dorfman says, \u201cthe construction industry could potentially capture even more carbon than it emits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The views and conclusions from this author are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine or of The American Institute of Architects.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Blaine Brownell, FAIA, is an\u00a0architect and materials researcher.\u00a0The author of the four\u00a0Transmaterial\u00a0<\/em>books (2006, 2008, 2010, 2017), he is the director of the school of architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concrete, steel, and wood comprise the triumvirate of structural building materials today. Most buildings contain all three in some capacity and employ one as a predominant framing medium. Architects and engineers default to these materials so regularly that the market seems impenetrable to alternatives. And yet, a fourth option may enter the picture\u2014and become the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Blaine Brownell posits that with faster cultivation rates, a higher carbon capture, and advances in processing, hemp could be the next big thing in structural systems after mass timber","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,12430,11749,14246,11885,13594],"supplier":[19557],"class_list":["post-102332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-buildingmaterial","tag-construction","tag-flooring","tag-hemp","tag-insulation","supplier-plantd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102332"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=102332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}