183— Cannabis Sativa: Pretreatment and Fiber Content Analysis

Cannabis Sativa commonly known as hemp, is one of the fastest growing plants whose refined products have immense commercial value. Refined hemp is included in various products: biofuels, biodegradable plastics, textiles, dietary supplements, paper, clothing and much more. Hemp fibers are also used in construction and manufacturing applications as a way to strengthen composite products. These qualities make hemp a high yielding, sustainable, and environmentally friendly crop with the potential to yield valuable raw materials for a large number of applications. Our research evaluates the pretreatment of hemp and the comparative analysis of the fiber content thereof. Our goal is to determine the suitability and the potential use of ionic liquid-based pretreatment (1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) for the breakdown of hemp lignocellulosic biomass. The collected data is presented and discussed.