Normally, the production of fibers from agricultural fiber crops is based on field drying and retting of plant straw. As weather conditions at the usual harvest time are often problematical for harvesting and retting, the development of weather-independent supply chain technologies is very important. The weather risk can be avoided, if, e.g., hemp after being harvested with a conventional forage harvester is directly processed to final products, or stored by wet preservation. Furthermore advantageous is that the whole plant material without any loss is processed to final products like fiber boards, insulation materials, or fibrous materials for natural fiber reinforced composites. Especially for this purpose a pilot plant has been built up and is tested till present. The investigations have shown that conventional technologies of ensiling are capable for the preservation of hemp for more than one year.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.