Industrial hemp
Vircura is creating a central hemp processing and innovative product development facility at the Monarto Innovation Precinct.
Vircura is creating a central hemp processing and innovative product development facility at the Monarto Innovation Precinct.
Vircura is the first company in South Australia to bring together the hemp growers and hemp processing capability; then use the product to develop new and innovative products to be used predominantly in the construction and building industry.
Vircura has opened up a new market for local growers to grow specific varieties for hemp fibre, including the hurd and bast. After harvest, the biomass is transported to the Monarto Innovation Precinct for processing using a hemp processor that can produce four different products: hurd, fibre, fines and hemp dust, all of which have uses in a range of applications ranging from building and construction materials, to textiles and bio-plastics.
We have partnered with the University of Adelaide to examine key aspects of the growth and development of hemp and cannabis under different LED light regimes.
The research will test the optimisation of LED supply to maximise production in a controlled environment and will assist Vircura in developing a horticultural lighting solution that will have applications not just for hemp and cannabis, but for a variety of indoor farming crops.
Hemp Plant
Hemp is a dioecious (i.e. plants are either male or female and can change sex or become hermaphrodite mid-life cycle), dicotyledonous annual herbaceous plant that originates from Asia and is considered one of the oldest domesticated crops known to humans.
Hemp grows in temperate, subtropical and tropical climates, and is a short-day plant, i.e. the plant requires a set number of successive short days for flower initiation. It also has a high light requirement during its growing period.
Almost all of the hemp plant has some potential use, however the three main industrial use parts of the hemp plant are the inner fibres (hurd), the outer fibres (bast) and the flowering part (seed).
For thousands of years, hemp fibres have been used for clothing, shoes, cordages, carpets, tarps, ropes, sails, nets, paper, matting and insulation. Hemp clothing is hard-wearing and has natural antiseptic properties. The hurd is used for animal bedding and biofuels, and more recently for building materials (hempcrete and particle board), fibre-composites (e.g. car parts), bio-plastics and alternatives to fibreglass.
Vircura is exporting hemp fibres to industry and also partnering with other companies to develop innovative new industrial hemp products for the building and construction industry, having enormous benefits such as being energy efficient, zero carbon, fire resistant and sound proof.
