Gaining more and more importance in our everyday life natural fibres are experiencing an impressive revival as insulation material and biocomposites in automotive applications. Time to look at their environmental impact and to ensure the sustainability of this revival. As a first step towards supporting the development of sustainably produced and innovative biorefinery products, nova-Institute has carried out a carbon footprint for various natural fibres. These include: hemp, which was assessed as part of the European (FP7) project MultiHemp, whose aim is the development and implementation of sustainable hemp biorefinery concepts; in comparison to flax, jute and kenaf. Our preliminary results show that the carbon footprint of all four fibres is decisively lower in comparison to their conventional counterparts i.e. glass and mineral fibres. Moreover, we found the carbon footprints of the natural fibres to be very similar to each other.
The European (FP7) project “Multipurpose Hemp for industrial bioproducts and biomass – MultiHemp” brings together 21 European partners from science and industry to achieve rapid targeted improvements in hemp productivity and raw material quality for enduser requirements. Within this project nova-Institute assesses the economic and environmental implications of each innovation so as to maximise economic return and increase sustainability. For more information about the MultiHemp project, please visit http://www.multihemp.eu.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no 311849.
For more detail download the full report at: http://www.bio-based.eu/ecology
Source
nova-Institut GmbH, 2015-04-08.
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