From Local Biomass to 3D-Printing Feedstocks: Evaluating Lebanese Natural Fiber Resources for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Natural-fiber-reinforced polymer composites have received increasing attention in additive manufacturing (AM), particularly in material extrusion and vat photopolymerization. Natural fibers are attractive for these applications because they are biodegradable, relatively inexpensive, and can provide an alternative to conventional reinforcements. However, most studies have focused on a limited number of widely used fibers, such as flax, hemp, jute, and kenaf. Other natural fibers that are locally available in regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant remain much less studied, especially in Lebanon. This review focuses on the potential of natural fibers available in Lebanon for additive manufacturing applications. Three types of information are considered. First, national agricultural data are used to identify crops and biomass sources that are actually available in the country. Second, previous studies carried out by Lebanese researchers are examined. These studies have investigated several local fibers, including hemp, banana, fan palm, and reed (Phragmites australis), although most of this work has focused on cement-based materials rather than polymer composites. Finally, these findings are compared with the international literature on natural fiber additive manufacturing, where direct experimental studies are already available for six of the eight fibers considered in this review. Olive wood waste has been compounded into PLA and fused-filament-fabricated with full mechanical and life-cycle characterization; artichoke stem waste has been compounded into epoxy and stereolithography-printed, with a tensile strength increase near 55%; hemp fiber has been compounded into PLA and fused-deposition-printed, with a 29.6% tensile strength increase at 2.5 wt% loading; and banana fiber, in combination with jute, has recently been fused-deposition-printed in PLA with full mechanical characterization; date palm fiber has been compounded into PLA and fused-deposition-printed, with an increase of 10.12% and 6.53% in yield and tensile strengths, respectively, compared to neat PLA; and tobacco stalk fiber has been compounded into PLA and FDM-printed, with infill pattern shown to substantially affect tensile and impact strength. These percentage improvements are not directly comparable across fibers, since each study used a different polymer matrix, fiber loading, and printing process. Hemp carries an additional regional dimension: a 2009 Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture/UNDP cultivation pilot, whose locally grown fiber outperformed imported industrial hemp in mechanical testing, together with Lebanon’s 2020 legalization of industrial hemp cultivation. Both the pilot and the legal pathway remain far from an active domestic supply chain, and neither should be confused with the large-scale, high-THC drug-type cannabis cultivated in the Bekaa Valley. Three further candidates, reed, fan palm, and cereal straw, have strong Lebanese experimental or agricultural grounding but no 3D-printing validation (cereal straw has only non-printed polymer data), representing the clearest targets for new experimental work. We synthesize this evidence against the known processing constraints of natural fiber 3D-printing (hydrophilicity, thermal degradation, interfacial bonding) and propose a prioritized research agenda for closing the identified gaps.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Fibers, 2026 · DOI ↗