Engineering firm Canadian Greenfield Technologies (CGT) has sold a $1.5 million hemp decortication line to Wyndrige Farm, a private company based in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA.
The technology, called HempTrain, is to be installed in an 80,000-sq-ft facility, Steve Groff, Wyndrige Farm’s owner, told the York Daily Record.
The specialized equipment is based on high-speed kinematic technology that turns out intact structural bast fiber while capturing a clean microfiber stream and other hemp derivatives, including flowers for CBD.
Technological advancement
The technology is an advancement over earlier generations of decorticators that employ a hammer mill, which damages bast fiber and causes attrition of hurd fiber, CGT said.
The decortication line, expected to be operational by autumn this year, has a capacity to process process up to 5,000 acres of hemp per year.
“No other company in the United States has anything like this ready to scale up,” Groff said. “We’re buying the first machine in the country.”
CGT Vice President Stephen Christensen said his company has seen a significant uptick in inquiries about the HempTrain technology since the U.S. Farm Bill passed in late 2018.
Groff said Wyndrige Farm’s hemp processing operation will employ 40 people initially.
