MJBizMag July 2020 - 79

Once those are cottonized, the " fiber
can be utilized in 99% of the world's
yarn-spinning industries, which are all
designed to process fiber from a general
length of cotton fiber, " he said.
Carpenter said his company is working
with a cotton gin manufacturer, the
Lummus Corp. in Savannah, Georgia, to
develop an affordable hemp decorticator.
Decorticators, which can cost more than
$2 million, separate hemp components
using hammermill technology, through
which the plant is hammered, rolled or
crushed into its components.
" We're going to make sure farmers get
a seat at the table in the fashion industry
with hemp, " Carpenter said. Farmers can
" extend their business life " by planting
hemp when they're not cultivating cotton,
he said.
In fact, a Dallas company called
Panda Biotech, for which Carpenter is a
consultant, plans to build a processing
center with two large decorticators in
Shallowater, Texas. The company also is
giving interested farmers 60 tons of seeds
for hemp fiber.
RESEARCH AND PROCESSING
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Ty Stukenholtz, a farmer and agricultural
engineer in Auburn, Nebraska, said he
believes research into plant genetics for
hemp plants that produce the best fiber
would go a long away-as would some
ingenuity when it comes to processing
equipment. Stukenholtz and his brother,
Jay, are planning to plant 20 acres of
hemp this year, including a hybrid called
" Abound, " which Stukenholtz said has
been bred for multiple uses, including
fiber, seed and oil. Made by New West
Genetics in Fort Collins, Colorado, the
plant grows shorter, about 6 feet-or
around half as much as some plants.
" A farmer would have choices now, "
he said.
Ty and Jay Stukenholtz developed
their own version of a decorticator by
connecting a John Deere S Series model
with equipment they call the " Interceptor
Hemp Harvesting System, " which is
caveats-No. 1 being " if the investment
in infrastructure and time were put into
it, " he said.
The bigger questions, he said, are
whether American hemp can be
successful, and whether U.S. companies
can participate profitably, including the
farmers. " The growing is not a problem,
but the fiber processing through yarnspinning
equipment is, " Silberman said.
Hemp textiles also have a lot of
Michael Twer-seen with, from left, daughter
AnneLeigh, wife Paige and daughter JJ-named
his company Delilah Home after the family dog,
standing front and center. Courtesy Photo
designed to perform some of the same
tasks as a decorticator and is " capable of
processing large volumes " of hemp.
The brothers are doing a limited
production run to sell the equipment
this fall, with the Interceptor priced
at $70,000.
" It may not be the finished product
needed, but it certainly has the potential
to aid in the process of breaking down
the hemp fiber into its components,
bringing it a step closer to mass
production for textiles and other uses, "
he said.
Ultimately, the goal is to be able to
produce hemp fiber affordably, at a large
scale.
" The textile market is already established
at a low cost, so to be competitive,
all the equipment involved needs to be
large scale, " Stukenholtz said.
HEMP LINE SPINNING
VERSUS COTTON SPINNING
For Twer's sheets to be 100% hemp, they
weren't cottonized but rather spun on
traditional hemp line spinning, Silberman
said.
" I don't know of anybody that's putting
in a new, long-line hemp spinning, but
I do know that people are converting all
of their cotton spinning to a cotton and
hemp blend, " he said.
Silberman said it is possible for hemp
textiles to catch on, but with some
competition, he said, adding that global
production of cotton is roughly 25 million
metric tons a year. Polyester is much
more than that, Silberman said.
" You have a market where you can
get market share, but you can't possibly
get your production to 25 million
metric tons to truly compete with
cotton, " he said.
Sarah Harf, CEO and founder of San
Francisco-based MoonCloth Designs,
which supplies hemp products and
textiles to luxury hotels such as Soho
House and Casetta Group, said educating
farmers and the public is a big part of the
challenge in advancing the industry.
" People think hemp is CBD; it's not, "
she said. " CBD is one very tiny element
of the hemp industry. Europe and Asia
have been doing industrial hemp for
decades, so there's a lot we can learn
from them, and we just need to be able to
adapt out here and be able to start investing
in these larger supply chains. "
Twer, for his part, remains encouraged
by his business.
" We're starting to gain some strong
momentum as people become aware that
hemp textiles do exist, " Twer said.
But he's also realistic about how long
the industry has to go to master producing
hemp textiles on a massive scale.
" There's obviously a science, and we're
just not there yet, " he said.
Ivan Moreno is a reporter
for Hemp Industry Daily
and Marijuana Business
Magazine.
July 2020 | mjbizdaily.com 77
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MJBizMag July 2020

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