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Institute
The technical, environmental and economic potential of hemp fines as a natural filler in bioplastics to produce biocomposites is the subject of this study – giving a holistic overview. Hemp fines are an agricultural by-product of the hemp fibres and shives production. Shives and fibres are for example used in the paper, animal bedding or composite area. About 15 to 20 wt.-% per kg hemp straw results in hemp fines after processing. In 2010 about 11,439 metric tons of hemp fines were produced in Europe. Hemp fines are an inhomogeneous material which includes hemp dust, shives and fibre. For these examinations the hemp fines are sieved in a further step with a tumbler sieving machine to obtain more specified fractions. The untreated hemp fines (ex work) as well as the sieved fractions are combined with a polylactide polymer (PLA) using a co-rotating twin screw extruder to produce biocomposites with different hemp fine content. By using an injection moulding machine standard test bars are produced to conduct several material tests. The Young’s modulus is increased and the impact strength reduced by hemp fines. With a content of above 15 wt.-% hemp fines are also improving the environmental (global warming potential) and economic performance in comparison to pure PLA.
Against the background of climate change and finite fossil resources, bio-based plastics have been in the focus of research for the last decade and were identified as a promising alternative to fossil-based plastics. Now, with an evolving bio-based plastic market and application range, the environmental advantages of bio-based plastic have come to the fore and identified as crucial by different stakeholders. While the majority of assessments for bio-based plastics are carried out based on attributional life cycle assessment, there have been only few consequential studies done in this area. Also, the application of eco-design strategies has not been in the focus for the bio-based products due to the prevailing misconceptions of renewable materials (as feedstock for bio-based plastics) considered in itself as an ‘eco-design strategy’. In this paper, we discuss the life cycle assessment as well as eco-design strategies of a bio-based product taking attributional as well as consequential approaches into account.