INTERVIEW: Alex Teodorescu leads the industrial improvement of pure fiber processing programs at Cretes (CREative TEchnical Options). Drawing on greater than 15 years of expertise in machine constructing, he brings collectively experience in industrial engineering and bast fiber processing. Since becoming a member of the Belgium-based firm in 2022, he has targeted on creating and delivering tailor-made processing options for hemp and different bast fibers, serving to bridge pilot-scale trials with industrial manufacturing.
HempToday: Cretes positions itself as a bridge between flax and hemp. How transferable is flax processing know-how to hemp in apply?
Alex Teodorescu: A big a part of flax-processing know-how is certainly transferable to hemp. At its core, bast fiber processing depends on the identical basic rules—mechanical separation of fibers, cleansing of fibers and shives, and managed baling—rules which can be the results of many years of flax processing.
That stated, hemp just isn’t flax, and it can’t be approached as a easy copy-paste of present options. Traditionally, flax has been processed primarily by scutching know-how, whereas hemp has extra usually relied on multi-stage decortication programs. These variations stem from each agronomic practices and historic finish markets.
Meet Alex Teodorescu at this 12 months’s EIHA Convention Session:
Equipment & Processing: Scaling Industrial Capability
June 11-12, 2026 | Poznań, Poland.
Since 2020, with the invention of parallel hemp harvesting and devoted trials carried out by Cretes, it has turn into potential to course of hemp utilizing know-how derived from flax scutching. This evolution has helped bridge the historic hole between the 2 fibers.
Whereas every fiber retains its personal traits, the underlying processing applied sciences are much more linked than many individuals assume right this moment.
HT: The place do hemp fibers nonetheless fail to satisfy the consistency required by textile-grade processing?
AT: From our expertise, the query just isn’t whether or not hemp can attain textile-grade high quality. It may. We now have seen that repeatedly. The actual problem lies in consistency.
Textile-grade processing doesn’t rely on a couple of profitable trials or remoted high-quality batches. It requires repeatability—batch after batch, day after day, at an industrial scale. With out that consistency, it turns into extraordinarily troublesome to construct a dependable textile worth chain.
On the similar time, it is necessary to not view hemp solely by a textile lens. Hemp is excess of a textile fiber. It’s a extremely versatile uncooked materials with robust potential in development supplies, composites, nonwovens, paper, and different technical purposes. Anybody getting into this sector wants to know that the true alternative is broader, and that profitable initiatives usually steadiness a number of markets slightly than counting on textiles alone.
HT: You supply batch manufacturing testing. What are clients usually stunned by once they run their materials by your system?
AT: We opened our manufacturing testing facility in Wielsbeke (Belgium) in 2023 with a really clear goal: to provide clients a practical and factual foundation for decision-making. Our objective is to not make guarantees on paper, however to reveal, below actual processing situations, which line configuration matches their uncooked materials and goal purposes finest.
That’s the actual worth of manufacturing testing. By working batches of some hundred kilos, clients can transfer away from assumptions and towards information. As a substitute of theoretical discussions about yields or efficiency, they’ll observe instantly how their very own materials behaves all through the method, and the place its actual alternatives and limitations lie.
What usually surprises clients most is how clearly uncooked materials variations turn into seen as soon as the fabric runs by the road. Two bales might look nearly equivalent externally, but behave very in another way when it comes to opening, cleansing effectivity, fiber yield, and ultimate high quality.
These checks additionally make it potential to totally perceive the impression of retting high quality, moisture management, baling density, and contamination—components which can be nonetheless too usually underestimated, however should be correctly managed earlier than scaling as much as an industrial degree. This perception is extraordinarily useful as a result of it permits clients to decide on probably the most value-adding resolution with a lot larger confidence.
HT: How far is the trade from true, repeatable industrial-scale hemp fiber processing?
AT: Harmful query — it brings out my interior salesman. So let me reply it plainly: with each Cretes line put in, we transfer one step nearer.
On a practical word, we’re now not debating whether or not industrial hemp fiber processing is feasible. The actual query is how shortly the sector can generate sufficient repeatable success tales to make consistency the rule slightly than the exception.
HT: Is the bottleneck right this moment extra about equipment or the variability of the uncooked materials?
AT: In apply, the bottleneck is usually the variability of the uncooked materials, and in different instances, the selection of processing know-how itself. However most frequently, it’s the interplay between the 2.
Even probably the most superior know-how can not assure constant output when the feedstock is inconsistent. If the variability alternative is improper, retting is uneven, moisture is poorly managed, or contamination ranges are too excessive, reaching secure high quality turns into considerably harder.
So the true reply just isn’t equipment or uncooked materials – it’s each. The trade wants sturdy, well-designed tools, however it additionally wants a lot larger self-discipline and management all through your complete worth chain, from the sector to the manufacturing unit.
HT: What are the commonest errors newcomers make earlier than they even attain the processing stage?
AT: The commonest mistake newcomers make is beginning with the processing machine in thoughts. That’s comprehensible, as a result of it seems to be the biggest funding, however it’s not often probably the most basic query.
In actuality, the primary focus ought to at all times be on the farming and raw-material aspect. Producers want a transparent understanding of what sort of hemp will be grown efficiently of their area, below their particular climatic and agronomic situations.
The second step is to outline the goal market early on, and to take action in keeping with the feedstock that may realistically be produced. That call instantly influences selection alternative, harvesting technique, and retting aims.
As soon as these two parts are correctly aligned, choosing the suitable processing system turns into a much more simple and far much less dangerous train.
HT: What degree of throughput is required to make a hemp processing facility economically viable?
AT: There isn’t a common throughput threshold that ensures financial viability. It depends upon many components, together with native straw availability, labor prices, plant uptime, degree of vertical integration, and—most significantly—the flexibility to valorize a number of output streams.
In our expertise, the higher query just isn’t “What’s the magic throughput quantity?” however slightly “Can the plant be constantly equipped, and may worth be created from a couple of product fraction?”
That stated, there may be at all times a minimal scale. A plant should be giant sufficient to generate a return on funding, pay farmers pretty, and function sustainably. In sensible phrases, in Europe, processing just a few hundred kilograms per hour is usually inadequate to help a practical industrial enterprise mannequin.
HT: Are your clients primarily pushed by textiles—or are different purposes nonetheless carrying the economics?
AT: Particularly in rising markets, textiles obtain a whole lot of consideration, and rightly so, as a result of they’re seen because the highest-value outlet for fiber.
Nonetheless, the strongest enterprise instances are not often constructed on textiles alone. Profitable initiatives are normally supported by a wider vary of purposes, together with paper, nonwovens, composites, development supplies, and the valorization of shives and different by-products.
That’s the reason probably the most resilient initiatives needs to be designed from the beginning round multi-stream valorization.
HT: What position ought to tools suppliers play past promoting equipment—are you turning into companions in system design?
AT: Completely. In hemp processing, the position of an tools provider goes far past merely delivering equipment. Its actual worth lies in lowering uncertainty.
Prospects are making long-term funding selections in a market that’s nonetheless evolving, with variable uncooked supplies and creating finish makes use of.
Our position is to assist flip that uncertainty right into a workable industrial idea — one which matches the feedstock, the goal purposes, and the sensible realities of day-to-day operation.
A severe machine provider shouldn’t be attempting to promote extra tools at any price. It needs to be serving to clients create worth and keep away from errors, even when meaning being clear about limitations.
HT: Should you look three to 5 years forward, what needs to be solved for the hemp trade to scale?
AT: If there may be one constraint that should be addressed, it’s realism throughout the worth chain.
The trade wants extra cooperation, larger honesty about feedstock high quality and processing limitations, and a clearer view of which purposes are actually able to scale right this moment. Hemp just isn’t solely a textile fiber, and treating it as such can gradual progress slightly than speed up it.
As soon as the sector aligns round this actuality, technological and industrial progress will observe rather more shortly.
