710196Wilson Knowles DecorticatorClosedGRD Proof of ConceptInnovate UKWe will develop efficient processing equipment for the extraction of fibres from flax crops (with adaption this could also process hemp). Machinery that delivers fibre suitable for high quality textiles will open up potential for Wilson Knowles “WK” to supply a small number of UK processors and many more North American and mainland EU processors. Global demand for materials from renewable resources has created massive potential for textile quality fibres. A major barrier to using bast fibres (hemp and flax) is the lack of efficient mechanical processing equipment to separate the fibre from the other plant materials (“Decortication”). Current high volume processes damage the fibres so they are only suitable for lower value markets and have high levels of waste that reduce fibre yields. Processes that deliver higher quality short fibre do not offer the volumes needed to commoditise these products. Linen is the most popular bast fibre for apparel but not relevant in this context as linen is a long fibre, volumes are low and it is (in Europe) a heavily subsidised crop. WK worked with leading UK scientists and farmers to develop a small scale decorticator to demonstrate that UK grown crops could meet quality requirements for higher value markets. This was done successfully but there are significant developments required to increase processing rates, capacity and efficiency to the level where Wilson Knowles can build commercial decortication plants. We will further develop and test novel concepts for 3 key elements to give processing capacity of up to 2.5 tonnes per hour of flax straw: 1. Efficient straw opener and initial removal of up to 20% of non-fibre materials 2. Short decortication sequence based on a novel ‘pinned cylinder’ (PC) combing and ‘straw working’ machine. 3. Modifications to step cleaners to process inputs from ‘new’ stages 1 and 2.