Purdue College has launched a consortium to carry collectively tutorial researchers, Indiana farmers and business stakeholders in a field-to-shelf hemp product improvement initiative.

The varsity’s new Hemp Merchandise Utilization Consortium (H-PUC) goals to bridge the hole between tutorial analysis and market-ready hemp merchandise. Formally launched Oct. 22, the consortium’s key aims embrace conducting agricultural trials, refining processing circumstances, scaling up manufacturing, and creating advertising and marketing methods for sustainable hemp-based supplies focused at completely different industries.

“This collaborative effort not solely accelerates our capability to carry environmentally pleasant merchandise to market but additionally strengthens Purdue’s management in industrial hemp analysis,” stated Senay Simsek, H-PUC’s main investigator and head of Purdue’s Division of Meals Science.

Companions sought

Her crew is now specializing in optimizing manufacturing and getting ready for potential partnerships with business gamers to commercialize these improvements. H-PUC’s collaboration permits Simsek’s crew to proceed advancing and scaling the analysis.

H-PUC’s main focus is creating biodegradable superabsorbent supplies derived from hemp hurd and bast fibers, that are produced by way of revolutionary strategies pioneered at Purdue’s School of Agriculture. The supplies, designed to retain water effectively, supply a sustainable different to traditional superabsorbent merchandise.

“H-PUC is addressing world wants and the challenges of rising populations and local weather change by way of sustainable options,” Simsek stated. “Whereas our preliminary focus is superabsorbent supplies, our imaginative and prescient extends past this. We purpose to broaden our scope over time.”

Brief- and long-term objectives

Simsek outlined H-PUC’s phased method, which incorporates short-term objectives like securing funding, testing pilot-scale manufacturing, and assessing manufacturing circumstances. “Our long-term plans embrace scaling up of manufacturing, partnering with firms with mental property, customizing supplies for particular purposes, and creating advertising and marketing methods,” she stated.

Simsek’s analysis has already demonstrated the efficacy of hemp hurds and bast in absorbent purposes. “Hemp hurds. . . are extremely absorbent as a consequence of their excessive cellulose content material and low lignin ranges, making them a superb different for superabsorbent purposes,” she stated, noting the extra sturdy outer bast layer, whereas much less absorbent, contributes energy and sturdiness to any closing outputs.

Excessive absorbtion capability

Simsek’s crew collaborated with Purdue Agronomy Division’s Marguerite Bolt and former Purdue researcher Laila Hossain to validate the effectiveness of the superabsorbent supplies developed on the college. Standardized exams confirmed that the supplies outperformed many conventional merchandise like polyacrylate-based absorbents.

“The hemp hurd, as a consequence of its enhanced floor space and porosity from our refining course of, confirmed considerably larger absorption capability than each hemp bast and lots of conventional supplies,” Simsek stated, underscoring the sustainable potential of this expertise.

The Purdue Innovates Workplace of Know-how Commercialization, which has filed a patent utility for the superabsorbent hemp-based supplies, manages Purdue’s mental property and business partnerships. The workplace reported greater than 460 invention disclosures and almost 300 patents acquired in fiscal 2024, illustrating Purdue’s energetic position in innovation and expertise switch.

In a associated initiative, Purdue researchers are creating hemp-based cellulose for absorbent merchandise like diapers. This analysis, supported by the Purdue Innovates Workplace, seeks sustainable alternate options to artificial supplies in client merchandise, probably reworking the marketplace for disposable absorbent items.

Hemp Merchandise Utilization Consortium management at Purdue: from left: Bernie Engel, the Glenn W. Pattern Dean of Agriculture at Purdue College; Jona Williams of Momentum Administration; Marguerite Bolt, Purdue Extension specialist; Jamie Petty of the Midwest Hemp Council; Senay Simsek, head of Purdue’s Division of Meals Science; Jake Bergman of Consolidated Carbon One; Tim Neal of Iconoclast Industries; and Ronald Turco, affiliate dean and director of agricultural analysis and graduate schooling within the School of Agriculture, throughout a Oct. 22 signing reception in West Lafayette to commemorate the Purdue Hemp Merchandise Utilization Consortium. (Purdue Agricultural Communications picture/Joshua Clark)