I finally had a chance to meet with Michael DeChamplain from Just Bio Fiber Structural Solutions and hear more about their plans and business development. We met over coffee and I brought along a friend, who has interest in hemp and is putting together an investment fund for these types of products. That meant that I got to hear more detailed information, after signing the company NDA. This also means that I can’t say too much here.
All in all, things are progressing very well for Just Bio Fiber. They are currently raising seed money to continue developing the product, working on the engineering and preparing for product testing. They are building alliances with important industry partners and getting the pieces in place to be able to start production later in the year. Michael said that they are getting lots of attention from many different areas, but the first thing will be to secure their patents and get funding together.
After the meeting we had a chance to go out to the street and pull 3 of the blocks out of Michael’s trunk and have a good look at them. For their size, they are surprisingly light, which would indicate that there is lots of insulating air in them. There is still good mass for thermal storage, but each block is easily handled by one person, to set it in place over another one. A pretty cool design and the natural Lego block of building products!
What’s the tornado strength of these hempcrete blocks? Will they sustain tornado force winds?
Hello Dennis,
Thank you for your question. These blocks are supposed to be very strong and resist severe winds and impact loading. I’m not sure about tornado force winds, but I believe that is the hope.