Alex Teodorescu leads the industrial growth of pure fiber processing methods 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 centered on growing 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 observe?
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 elementary rules—mechanical separation of fibers, cleansing of fibers and shives, and managed baling—rules which might be the results of a long time of flax processing.
That mentioned, hemp shouldn’t be flax, and it can’t be approached as a easy copy-paste of present options. Traditionally, flax has been processed primarily via scutching expertise, whereas hemp has extra usually relied on multi-stage decortication methods. These variations stem from each agronomic practices and historic finish markets.
Meet Alex Teodorescu at this yr’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 grow to be doable to course of hemp utilizing expertise 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 way more linked than many individuals assume at this time.
HT: The place do hemp fibers nonetheless fail to fulfill the consistency required by textile-grade processing?
AT: From our expertise, the query shouldn’t be whether or not hemp can attain textile-grade high quality. It might probably. We now have seen that repeatedly. The true problem lies in consistency.
Textile-grade processing doesn’t rely upon just a few 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 tough to construct a dependable textile worth chain.
On the similar time, it will be significant to not view hemp solely via a textile lens. Hemp is excess of a textile fiber. It’s a extremely versatile uncooked materials with sturdy potential in development supplies, composites, nonwovens, paper, and different technical purposes. Anybody coming into this sector wants to grasp that the true alternative is broader, and that profitable tasks usually stability a number of markets fairly than counting on textiles alone.
HT: You supply batch manufacturing testing. What are clients sometimes stunned by after they run their materials via your system?
AT: We opened our manufacturing testing facility in Wielsbeke (Belgium) in 2023 with a really clear goal: to present clients a sensible and factual foundation for decision-making. Our objective is to not make guarantees on paper, however to display, beneath actual processing situations, which line configuration suits their uncooked materials and goal purposes greatest.
That’s the actual worth of manufacturing testing. By operating 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 straight 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 grow to be seen as soon as the fabric runs via the road. Two bales could look virtually similar externally, but behave very otherwise by way of opening, cleansing effectivity, fiber yield, and closing high quality.
These assessments additionally make it doable to completely perceive the influence of retting high quality, moisture management, baling density, and contamination—components which might be nonetheless too usually underestimated, however should be correctly managed earlier than scaling as much as an industrial degree. This perception is extraordinarily helpful as a result of it permits clients to decide on probably the most value-adding answer with a lot larger confidence.
HT: How far is the business from true, repeatable industrial-scale hemp fiber processing?
AT: Harmful query — it brings out my inside salesman. So let me reply it plainly: with each Cretes line put in, we transfer one step nearer.
On a sensible be aware, we’re not debating whether or not industrial hemp fiber processing is feasible. The true query is how shortly the sector can generate sufficient repeatable success tales to make consistency the rule fairly than the exception.
HT: Is the bottleneck at this time extra about equipment or the variability of the uncooked materials?
AT: In observe, the bottleneck is usually the variability of the uncooked materials, and in different circumstances, the selection of processing expertise itself. However most frequently, it’s the interplay between the 2.
Even probably the most superior expertise can’t assure constant output when the feedstock is inconsistent. If the variability selection is improper, retting is uneven, moisture is poorly managed, or contamination ranges are too excessive, attaining secure high quality turns into considerably tougher.
So the true reply shouldn’t be equipment or uncooked materials – it’s each. The business wants strong, well-designed gear, but it surely 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 most typical 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 most important funding, however it’s hardly ever probably the most elementary 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, beneath their particular climatic and agronomic situations.
The second step is to outline the goal market early on, and to take action according to the feedstock that may realistically be produced. That call straight influences selection selection, harvesting technique, and retting goals.
As soon as these two parts are correctly aligned, choosing the best 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 is determined by many components, together with native straw availability, labor prices, plant uptime, degree of vertical integration, and—most significantly—the power to valorize a number of output streams.
In our expertise, the higher query shouldn’t be “What’s the magic throughput quantity?” however fairly “Can the plant be persistently equipped, and might worth be created from a couple of product fraction?”
That mentioned, 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 only some hundred kilograms per hour is mostly inadequate to assist a sensible 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 variety of consideration, and rightly so, as a result of they’re seen because the highest-value outlet for fiber.
Nonetheless, the strongest enterprise circumstances are hardly ever constructed on textiles alone. Profitable tasks are often 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 tasks needs to be designed from the beginning round multi-stream valorization.
HT: What position ought to gear suppliers play past promoting equipment—are you changing into companions in system design?
AT: Completely. In hemp processing, the position of an gear provider goes far past merely delivering equipment. Its actual worth lies in decreasing uncertainty.
Clients are making long-term funding choices in a market that’s nonetheless evolving, ith variable uncooked supplies and growing 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 gear at any value. It needs to be serving to clients create worth and keep away from errors, even when which means being clear about limitations.
HT: For those who look three to 5 years forward, what needs to be solved for the hemp business to scale?
AT: If there may be one constraint that should be addressed, it’s realism throughout the worth chain.
The business wants extra cooperation, larger honesty about feedstock high quality and processing limitations, and a clearer view of which purposes are really able to scale at this time. Hemp shouldn’t be solely a textile fiber, and treating it as such can gradual progress fairly than speed up it.
As soon as the sector aligns round this actuality, technological and industrial progress will observe way more shortly.
