CEE researchers’ analysis outlines path to a U.S. construction market for hemp-based fibers, which are already used for clothing and biodegradable plastics.
From left, Kelly Farmer, Akanksha Menon, Joe Bozeman, and Arjun Ramshankar with a package of traditional fiberglass insulation and a rack holding samples of potential hemp-based insulation materials created by graduate student Elyssa Ferguson in Menon's lab. The team has published an analysis outlining a path toward a viable hemp-based building insulation market in the U.S. Hemp insulation can be used in place of traditional fiberglass batt insulation and reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, but hemp materials currently cost twice as much. (Photo: Candler Hobbs)
It’s a fairly niche product now, but a new study from Georgia Tech engineers suggests insulation made from hemp fibers could be a viable industry in the U.S., creating jobs, a manufacturing base, and greener homes and buildings at the same time.
Making the switch could slash the impact of one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: Buildings account for roughly 1/5 of emissions globally. By some estimates, using hemp-based products would reduce the environmental impact of insulation by 90% or more.
The Georgia Tech researchers’ work, reported this month in the Journal of Cleaner Production, is one of the first studies to evaluate the potential for scaling up U.S. production and availability of hemp-based insulation products.
“Existing economic modeling studies were mostly limited to data on purchase price, finding that hemp insulation is more expensive than conventional installations. We wanted to go a different route, modeling from the industry's perspective,” said Arjun Thangaraj Ramshankar, lead author of the study and an environmental engineering Ph.D. student. “The lack of studies also means lack of data, so our methods not only focused on economic modeling, but also on, how do you address the lack of data and still develop a fair model?”
Machine learning helped the team of civil and environmental engineering, public policy, and mechanical engineering researchers fill those gaps and uncover a promising market opportunity — despite fairly expensive raw hemp fibers, an underdeveloped supply chain, and still nascent demand.
Bottom line: Hemp insulation is a viable industry in the U.S., the researchers found. Sustaining it, though, will require a fairly high volume of sales and more of the product produced in the U.S.
Industrial production of hemp has picked up substantially since it was legalized by Congress in 2018. The fibers from the fast-growing plant can be turned into a variety of products, including clothing, rope, and biodegradable plastics. Construction materials using hemp — concrete, plaster, and insulation, among them — are gaining popularity as a way to reduce the carbon impact of buildings, especially in Europe.
Hemp insulation can directly replace fiberglass products in residential and commercial buildings, but it currently costs about twice as much.
Senior coauthor Joe Bozeman said the team’s study suggests well-placed incentives could jump-start the industry, helping subsidize production capacity while demand grows.
“This could be a really mutually beneficial marketplace for everyone,” said Bozeman, assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “We get less embodied carbon in buildings, a new industry, new jobs, and then there's a lot of opportunity for technological advancements on the back of this market viability.”
Bozeman also said marrying the emerging market for hemp insulation with the shortage of housing in the U.S. could mean real opportunity to address two issues simultaneously.
“We could have a really, really interesting dynamic: Some of the newer houses could have less embodied carbon by using this hemp insulation, which could also jump start the market,” he said. “This is something federal or state legislation can address.”
Along with graduate student Kelly Farmer and mechanical engineering Assistant Professor Akanksha Menon, Ramshankar and Bozeman performed what they called a techno-economic analysis to assess whether there’s opportunity to develop a market for the insulation. It’s an approach that will have broader uses in Bozeman’s lab — including projects on reducing the carbon footprint of concrete, recycling lithium from electric vehicle batteries, and reusing nutrients and filtering out “forever chemicals” like PFAS in wastewater.
“We used hemp insulation as our material for this study, but the broader goal was developing a framework for any alternative that you're considering,” Ramshankar said. “With this method, you can assess economic viability for any material being considered as a potential alternative.”
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About the Research
This research was supported by the Georgia Tech Renewable Bioproducts Institute Fellowship. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.
Citation: Ramshankar A, Farmer K, Menon A, and Bozeman J. Scalability of hemp-based thermal insulation in the United States – A Monte Carlo-based techno-economic approach. J. Clean. Prod. 2025;493:144952. doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.144952.
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