Natural Cellulose Fibers from Renewable Resources

Keywords

Cannabis • Hemp fiber • Outer bark • Reinforcement

Belonging to the same family (Cannabaceae) and genus Cannabis as hemp, hop (Humulus lupulus L.) is a plant grown for its flower, an ingredient used in most beer. After harvesting the flower, the hop plants are cut and considered as waste. Hop stems contain an outer bark and inner pith, typical of any bast fiber plant. The fibrous outer bark has been used to produce long-length fibers (10-15 cm) with tensile properties comparable to that of hemp [09Red]. Hop stem fibers also had cellulose crystal structure similar to that of hemp as seen in Table 12.1. Untreated hop stems and fibers obtained from hop stems have been used as reinforcement for composites [10Zou].

Table 12.1 Properties of fibers obtained from hop stems [09Red]

References

[09Red] Reddy, N., Yang, Y.: Carbohydr. Polym. 77(4), 898 (2009)

[10Zou] Zou, Y., Reddy, N., Yang, Y.: J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 116, 2366 (2010)