The Future of Hemp

North Dakota based startup, 3DomFuel is recycling everyday materials to produce a 3D printing product they call Filament. Among the materials used are coffee, beer and a hemp blend called “Entwined.” Though the dominant material for all 3D printing products is still plastic, Entwined does include byproduct from industrial hemp crops.

3DomFuel founders John Schneider and Jake Clark started their search for unconventional materials back in 2015 when they discovered a local business that specialized in creating new products by combining agricultural waste with plastics to create new usable products that were also more eco-friendly.

Schneider and Clark started with coffee and eventually created a filament called “Buzzed,” a 3D printing material that was sustainable and also had a nice aroma.

After the success of Buzzed, the duo wanted to try for other “intriguing” materials and that’s when hemp was brought into the mix.

As of now, 30 percent of the filament used is made with the unconventional materials and comes on a 100 percent bio-based Eco spool.

The cost is still approximately 60-80 percent higher than the plain plastic printing material but that doesn’t seem to be swaying the market as business is up and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Since the launch of Entwined, the response has been promising. “Folks from the hemp industry have reached out to us,” Schneider said to CNN. “They love seeing other innovative ways to use hemp.” And with new legalization laws currently being put in place regarding recreational and medicinal use of cannabis, it would make sense that the hemp industry would also grow with it.

So what does 3DomFuel hope for the future? Schneider hopes to see the business expand, eventually working with medical and aerospace industries, and with any luck, renewable materials like these will become the norm creating a more sustainable, brighter future for us all.