HempCyberFarm Netherlands

Hemp Cultivation in the Netherlands

The situation in the Netherlands:

Approximately 1'500 ha is grown by Hempflax, BV. (1'000 ha in the Netherlands, 500 ha in Germany). Awaiting further material from this company to post on HCF…

1000 tonnes of Dutch hemp produced by Hempflax B.V.

Do you know more about this? e-mail us at Matthew@HempWorld.com

Subscription price for the Journal of the International Hemp Association $50 per year, is low compared to the quality, wealth and breadth of information. An excerpt of one of IHA’s Journals follows below. Judge for yourself.

The scientific Hemp community and mother earth would also appreciate a donation to the Vavilov Project initiated by IHA to save the World’s last remaining gene pool of this most valuable plant. Think about what you can do to help stop de-forestation, hunger, pollution, ozone layer, etc. In my opinion this is the most cost effective way to help our Planet heal and de-toxify ourselves. Your money will be used 100% for growing Hemp by non-profit organizations. What other earthsaving organization can make this kind of statement? (p.s. if you want to brush up on your gene pool knowledge click here!)

International Hemp Association Organization:
David P. Watson, Chairman
David W. Pate, Secretary
Robert C. Clarke, Projects Manager
Hayo van der Werf, Editor in Chief
Irene Bijl Treasurer
With contributions from various other Hemp experts around the World.

Hemp Pulp and Paper Production
Gertjan van Roekel jr.
ATO-DLO Agrotechnology, P.O.box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Van Roekel, G J, 1994. Hemp pulp and paper production. Journal of the International Hemp Association 1: 12-14.
A brief review of the history of paper making reveals the important role of hemp in the development of the industry. The technical aspects of classical hemp pulping and paper making and the present status of the hemp pulp and paper industry are discussed. It is shown that for new applications of hemp as a paper making fibre source, new pulp technology is required. This article is the first in a series about hemp pulping and paper making.

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History of paper making
The use of fibre hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) for pulp and paper dates back more than 2,000 years. The oldest surviving piece of paper in the world was discovered by archeologists in 1957 in a tomb near Sian in Shensi province, China (Temple 1986). It is about 10 cm square and can be dated precisely between the years 140 and 87 BC. This paper and similar bits of paper surviving from the next century are thick, coarse, and uneven in their texture. They are all made of pounded and disintegrated hemp fibres. Paper historians agree that the earlier Egyptian papyrus sheets should not be referred to as paper, because the fibre strands are woven and not "wet-laid" (Hunter 1957). The Chinese paper-making craftsmanship was transferred to Arabic and North-African countries, and from there to Europe. The first European paper making was reported in the first half of the 16th century (Hunter 1957).

Until the early 19th century, the only raw material available for paper making was rags. Rags are worn-out clothes. Since at that time clothing was solely made of hemp and flax (sometimes cotton), almost all paper in history was thus made of hemp and flax fibres. With the industrial revolution, the need for paper began to exceed the available rag supply. Although hemp was the most traded commodity in the world up to the 1830’s (Conrad 1993), the shortage of rags threatened the monopoly for hemp and flax as paper-making fibres. This was the major incentive for inventors and industries to develop new processes to use the world’s most abundant (and cheap) source of natural fibres: our forests.

Currently, only about 5% of the world's paper is made from annual plants like hemp, flax, cotton, sugarcane bagasse, esparto, wheat straw, reeds, sisal, abaca, banana leaf, ananas and some other more exotic species. The world hemp paper pulp production is now believed to be around 120,000 tons per year (FAO 1991), which is about 0.05 % of the world’s annual pulp production volume. Hemp pulps are generally blended with other (wood-) pulps for paper production. There is currently no significant production of 100 % true hemp paper.

Renewed interest in hemp paper
The recent renewed interest in hemp as a paper-making fibre seems to originate from a strong environmental motive. All primary forests in Europe, and most in North America have been destroyed, amongst others for paper production. Now we accuse the nations which still have primary forests of not guarding theirs.

In Europe all trees harvested for paper making were intended for that purpose, so there seems to be no valid reason to switch to a non-wood or "tree-free" fibre source. This of course is a little different in the Americas and in Asia and Australia, where primary forests are cleared at a huge environmental cost. In these regions hemp has a number of advantages as an alternative source of paper-making fibre. Hemp does not need pesticides or herbicides, and yields three to four times more usable fibre per hectare per annum than forests. And last but not least: paper recycling was invented to make up for the mistake of cutting down our primary forests. Technically speaking, one doesn’t need to recycle hemp paper, because it is a renewable raw material.

One disadvantage of using hemp or other annual plants as fibre source is that the present pulping technology has been optimised for tree-fibre pulping, so some adjustments in the pulping processes need to be made when applying this technology to hemp fibres. Before going into technical details, we will first examine the technology of pulp and paper making.

Pulping and paper making
Paper making is essentially the rearranging of elementary fibres from whatever source (a tree, a hemp stalk, an old pair of jeans or even a scoop of algae) into a flat thin sheet.

Elementary fibres are the basic building blocks of trees and many plants. The average paper making fibre is about 2 mm long and about 20 micrometers (0.02 mm) thick. All fibres are assembled of chains of cellulose molecules, arranged as a rigid structure. These building blocks are glued together with other biological components (lignins, pectins), which give a certain flexibility and strength to the tissue, so that the tree or plant can bend at high stresses, and doesn’t break in a storm, and is able to carry its seeds and fruits. The following explains what is needed to process a fibre source into paper (Smook 1982):

Pulping (from fibre source to pulp):
•cleaning: all non-fibrous components need to be removed from the raw material, and the remaining fibres must be cleaned of dirt, rocks and other contaminants.

•fiberizing: the elementary fibres are taken apart by either chemically removing the glue that holds them together, or mechanically tearing the fibre structure apart. From this step on, the material is referred to as "pulp".

•cutting: especially hemp fibres are too long to give a homogeneous paper sheet, so the fibres have to be cut to the right size.

•classification: the fibres suitable for use in paper are separated from the ones too short, too long, too wide, too thin, too crooked, too dirty and too old. Fibres can be classified by weight (centrifugal and gravitational processes) and size (various sieving processes).

•bleaching: optionally, the suitable fibres may be bleached to a higher "whiteness". The whiter a sheet, the better the contrast with the ink. Old-style pulp mills use chlorine compounds with hazardous side-effects. Modern pulp mills use oxygen-based bleaching (compounds like oxygen, ozone and peroxide). Hemp pulp can be bleached with relatively harmless hydrogen peroxide. For some applications bleaching is not required, for instance for packaging paper and board.

•refining: this is a separate process step in which the fibre surfaces are "roughened". The greater surface roughness of a fibre, the better it adheres to other fibres in the paper sheet and the greater the strength of the paper.

Papermaking (from pulp to paper):
•Dilution: in order to lay the fibres evenly into a homogeneous sheet, the pulp is diluted with large amounts of water (sometimes up to 200 times as much water as fibre pulp).

•Formation: the fibre-water slurry is poured on a fine mesh wire. Most of the water will fall through the wire, leaving the fibres to settle into a flat sheet.

•Drying: in the next steps, the wet sheet is dried by subsequent pressing and steam heating.

•Sheeting: finally, the formed sheet is cut to the required size.

These processes are essentially the same for manual paper making and for modern paper machines, with the difference that the old paper maker put out one handmade sheet per minute, and the state-of-the-art Fourdrinier newsprint paper machine puts out 15,000 square meters a minute: a 10 meter wide sheet at 90 kilometers an hour!

Remainders of the hemp pulp industry
Although there are thousands of non-wood paper mills in the world, only a few of them use hemp as a fibre source. At present 23 paper mills use hemp fibre, at an estimated world production volume of 120,000 tons per annum. Most of the mills are located in China and India, and produce moderate quality printing and writing paper. Typically, these mills do not really have a fixed source of fibre, but they simply use whatever can be found in the region. About 10 of the mills are located in the western world (US, UK, France, Spain, eastern Europe, Turkey), and these mills produce so-called specialty papers such as:

•cigarette paper: even popular American cigarette brands have a 50% hemp cigarette paper and filter. Some countries still have legislation prescribing the use of hemp in cigarette paper, because other fibres (like spruce) generate hazardous fumes when incinerated (!).

•filter paper (for technical and scientific uses)

•coffee filters, tea bags

•specialty non wovens

•insulating papers (for electrical condensators)

•greaseproof papers

•security papers

•various specialty art papers

These papers can generally only be produced from special fibres like hemp, flax, cotton and other non-wood fibre sources. The average hemp pulp and paper mill produces around 5000 tons per annum. This should be compared to a "normal" pulp mill for wood fibre, which is never smaller than 250,000 tons per annum. The only reason the remaining mills can still produce at this extremely small size is that there is a very special use for the pulp. This partly explains the high price for a hemp pulp: about US $2500 per ton versus about US $400 for a typical bleached wood pulp. The remaining mills in the western world are unable to cope with western environmental regulations because of their small size and archaic technology. Some mills survive by shipping their waste water to a large wood pulp mill nearby, others have to close down. There is a clear shift in capacity towards countries that do not as yet take environmental problems very seriously.

One reason for the high price of hemp pulp is the inefficient pulping processes used. Another reason is that hemp is harvested once a year (during August) and needs to be stored to feed the mill the whole year through. This storage requires a lot of (mostly manual) handling of the bulky stalk bundles, which accounts for a high raw material cost.

Classical pulping technology
Most mills predominantly process the long hemp bast fibres, which arrive as bales of cleaned ribbon from preprocessing plants located near the cultivation areas. The bales are opened and fed into a spherical tank, called a digester. Water is added (5 to 10 times the fibre weight), together with the cooking chemicals to remove the "glue" components lignin and pectin from the fibres. Most mills use sodium hydroxide and sulphur cocktails.

The fibres are cooked for several hours (sometimes up to eight hours) at elevated temperature and pressure, until all fibres are separated from each other. After cooking, the cooking chemicals and the extracted binding components are separated from the fibres by washing with excess water. This is where most of the polluting waste emerges from the process. Often wastes are discharged as such into the local surface water.

The remaining clean fibres are then fed into a Hollander beater, which is best compared to an industrial size bathtub, with a large wheel revolving around a horizontal axis at one point in the tub. The wheel pumps the pulp round and round, and meanwhile cuts the fibres to the right length, and also gives the fibres the required surface roughness for better bonding capacity. This beating goes on for up to twelve hours per batch. Some mills add bleaching chemicals in this beating process, other mills pass the pulp from the beating machines to separate tanks for bleaching. These separate bleaching treatments often use chlorine compounds, which are also discharged into the environment. The bleached pulp is then ready to be pumped to the paper machine, or can be pressed to a dryness suitable for transportation to a paper mill elsewhere. The processing time of more than twenty hours make this process very expensive, as the costly equipment and handling must be depreciated over a very low throughput.

Necessity for new technology
New applications for hemp as a paper making raw material require a new pulping technology which must be able to use hemp from wet storage. Some new technologies have been developed, albeit in laboratory or on pilot scale. The next item in this series about hemp pulping and papermaking will discuss these new technologies and their benefits.

References
Abel E.L. 1980. Marihuana, the first twelve thousand years. Plenum press, New York, 289 pp. Conrad C., 1993. Hemp, lifeline to the future. Creative Xpressions Publishing, Los Angeles, California. FAO 1991. The outlook for pulp and paper to 1995. Paper products, and industrial update. Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, Rome. Hunter, D. 1957. Papermaking, the history and technique of an ancient craft. 2nd Ed. Albert A. Knopf, Smook G.A. 1982. Handbook for pulp & paper technologists. 2nd Ed. Angus Wilde Publications, Vancouver, B.C. Temple R.K.C, 1986. China, land of discovery and invention. Patrick Stevens Ltd., United Kingdom.
Please become an IHA member and donate to the VIR/IHA Cannabis germplasm preservation project.

Paper from Dutch hemp?
Hayo M. G. van der Werf
International Hemp Association, Postbus 75007, 1070 AA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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From January 1990 until December 1993, a total of 12 research institutes in the Netherlands spent Dfl 17 million (US $9 million) on a hemp research programme. The objective of this programme was to establish whether fibre hemp can be of economic interest to farmers and to the pulp and paper industry in the Netherlands. The major research disciplines within the programme were: plant breeding, crop physiology, plant pathology, harvest and storage technology, pulp technology, and economics and market research. This research yielded a large amount of factual information, which was recently summarized in two reports in Dutch (Bakker et al. 1993, Van Berlo 1993).

Several researchers who were involved in the Hemp Research Programme will contribute papers on the results they obtained in their field to this and following issues of this Journal. One of the major results of the programme: a business concept, outlining the required specifications for a viable hemp-paper business to be set up in the Netherlands, is summarized in this article (Van Berlo 1993).

The business concept

Pulp markets
Market research has shown that both high-value and low-value markets are relevant for fibre hemp grown in the Netherlands. High-value pulp markets consist of applications in Light-Weight Coated paper (LWC), sanitary papers and tissues, and 'fluff', which is used in the production of diapers. In the Netherlands, the size of each of these three markets is about 10,000 ton/year. Low-value pulp markets consist of applications in the production of massive and corrugated cardboard. In the Netherlands, the market for hemp pulp for cardboard production is about 160,000 ton/year. Pulp quality specifications, such as whiteness and purity, are lower for low-value markets than for high-value markets.

The high-value market is the eventual major objective, but initially pulp will be made for the low-value cardboard market, because it does not require top quality specifications. Pulp technology will be gradually optimised, and pulp production for high-value markets will then be possible. First the LWC market will be approached, and finally the sanitary paper, tissue and fluff markets. The low-value market will continue to be served, as the high-value market probably can not absorb all the pulp produced.

Initially, when pulp is produced for low-value markets only, a market price of Dfl 600/ton of pulp is expected. After several years, when pulp will be produced for both high- and low-value markets, a price of Dfl 1,000/ton is possible.

Hemp production
A hemp-growers cooperative should be set up by arable farmers in the north-east of the Netherlands. In the first year, the members of this cooperative will grow 2,500 hectares (1 hectare or ha = 2.47 acres) of fibre hemp. Over a period of 6 to 7 years, this area will expand to 11,000 ha and the cooperative will consist of a total of 1,000 to 1,100 farmers. In the crop rotation, hemp will replace cereals. Initially a yield of 10 ton/ha of stem dry matter is expected. After 5 years, improved cultivars will be available and an average stem yield of 12 ton/ha is expected. Initially farmers will get Dfl 130/ton of stem dry matter, this price will increase to Dfl 180/ton as pulp production is geared more to high-value pulp markets. In addition, the European Union (EU) supplies a Dfl 1,700/ha subsidy to hemp growers. The crop is harvested in September by contractors who will use modified silage maize harvesters. The crop is ensiled on the farm and sodium hydroxide is added to the chopped stems for preservation.

Provided the EU maintains its Dfl 1,700/ha subsidy, and if a an average yield of 12 ton/ha at a price of Dfl 180/ton is obtained five years after the start of the project, the farmer's gross margin (financial yield minus direct costs) will be Dfl 2,343/ha. This is more than the gross margin of wheat and less than that of potato.

Pulp production
The pulp factory will be set up stepwise. It will start at a production capacity of 20,000 ton/year of pulp. Ensiled hemp will be brought from the farms to the factory and separated into bark and core using a flotation system. Both fractions will be pulped using chemo-mechanical pulp technology. The resulting pulp will meet the requirements of the low-value market. At this scale, pulp technology and waste water treatment technology will be further optimised.

The size of the factory will then be increased to 40,000 and finally to 90,000 ton/year by adding parallel chemo-mechanical pulp lines. As the pulping process will be more sophisticated, pulps for the high-value markets will be produced. A total investment of Dfl 127 million would be required for a pulp factory producing 90,000 ton/year for both high- and low-value markets.

Financing
In order to be economically feasible, the pulp factory should reach a capacity of at least 40,000 ton/year. This would require an investment of Dfl 57 million. Three sources could contribute to this investment:

a) Shares. Shares are owned by the hemp growers (Dfl 500/ha), other farmer cooperatives, banks and paper factories. Shares should finance 50 % of the total investment.

b) Subsidies. Subsidies from several sources should supply 25 % of the total investment.

c) Low-interest loans. These should be supplied by national and regional governments, and make up the remaining 25 % of the total investment.

Based on this financial structure and on the other assumptions outlined above, the shares would yield a return on investment of 16 % with a pay back time of 4.8 years.

Feasibility of the business concept
A committee, consisting of representatives of farmers, the paper industry, farmers cooperatives and of the provincial and national government, was asked to give its advice on the business plan. This committee concluded that some of the assumptions the business plan relies on are uncertain, which make it impossible to decide on its feasibility. The committee recommends further research to resolve the uncertainties. This research should include setting up a pilot plant producing 1,000-5,000 ton/year of pulp, and growing the hemp required to supply the pilot plant. The pilot plant would allow improvement of the pulp technology and a better estimate of the costs involved. This additional research would take about 2 years and cost Dfl 8-10 million. Currently, funding for this pilot research is being solicited from the paper industry and the national and provincial governments.

References
Bakker H. and M.J.J.M van Kemenade, 1993. Papier uit hennep van Nederlandse grond. Eindrapportage van vier jaar hennep-onderzoek: Samenvatting, conclusies en aanbevelingen. [Paper from hemp grown in the Netherlands. Final report of four years of research on hemp: Summary, conclusions and recommendations.] ATO-DLO, Wageningen, 37 pp
Van Berlo J.M., 1993. Papier uit hennep van Nederlandse grond. Eindrapportage van vier jaar henneponderzoek: Business Concept en onderbouwing. [Paper from hemp grown in the Netherlands. Final report of four years of research on hemp: Business Concept and foundations.] ATO-DLO, Wageningen, 222 pp.
Please become an IHA member and donate to the VIR/IHA Cannabis germplasm preservation project.
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Hemp facts and links related to the Netherlands:

DUTCH TREAT*

In 1976 the Netherlands began a policy of tolerating possession of up to one ounce of cannabis. Soon "coffee shops" sprung up throughout the nation selling a variety of strains of cannabis and hashish. The result? Massive crime and a stampede of children toward drug addiction? Hardly.

A mere 3 percent of Dutch teenagers use cannabis, a far cry from the U.S. rate. Once the “outlaw” attraction was gone, most teens lost interest in cannabis. Dutch prisons also don't suffer from the overcrowding problems common in the United States. This de facto legalization has allowed the Netherlands to concentrate on treatment rather than incarceration, for users of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin, which has saved countless lives.

The Dutch stance on cannabis has generated thousands of jobs, millions of dollars, and worldwide praise and goodwill. Naturally this progressive county is also reaping the rewards of being Europe's leader in industrial hemp production and technology.*

*Note: From “The Hemp Manifesto” by Rowan Robinson (Email: hemp@gotoit.com), published by Park Street Press, an imprint of Inner Traditions International, Rochester, VT 05767 Copyright © 1997, Inner Traditions International. Or visit: www.gotoit.com

Do you know more about this? e-mail us at Matthew@HempWorld.com

*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.