Hemp Fiber As A Super Absorbent

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Sustainability efforts are driving more and more companies to consider renewable components to various products. That’s definitely true when it comes to super absorbents, says Purdue University professor and food science department head Senay Simsek. She has been working to use hemp fiber to replace some non-biodegradable absorbent materials.

Simsek… “Industrial hemp is a very versatile crop with lots of potential applications, and in this research we try to utilize hemp fiber to develop super absorbent materials to replace some of the petroleum-based super absorbent materials that we currently use in different applications.”

Simsek says super absorbents are extremely hydrophilic materials that can hold hundreds of times their weight in water.

Simsek… “And the most common example that everyone is very familiar is baby diapers. because in baby diapers you want to have rapid water absorption And another example is packaging in the maybe chicken or fish. When you buy meat products, you see there is a padding on the package. In that case, we want to absorb some of the water that is leaking from the meat or fish.”

Simsek hopes that this research can help replace petroleum based super absorbent materials for these applications and others.