Hemp as fuel.

[FloridaPat]

There's a lot on the internet about hemp being able to replace a lot of oil imports. But since it's illegal, no one in our gov't is interested. Probably also because it will do a good job. Hemp also does a lot of stuff. It's used to make clothes - but since we don't make anything in our coutry anymore, I guess we really don't have to care about that. It's used for ropes, sails, and a lot of other things. Favorite plants of our ancestors.

"From more than 1000 B.C. until 1883 hemp was the planet's largest agricultural crop and most important industry for thousands of products and enterprises. Hemp produced the majority of earth's fibers, fabrics, lighting oils, paper, incense, and the primary source of food oil and protein for humans and animals."

"Biodiesel can be made from domestically produced, renewable oilseed crops such as hemp. With over 30 million successful U.S. road miles hemp boidiesel could be the answer to our cry for cheaper fuel. We have spent the last century polluting our beautiful country with our petroleum based fuels that could have easily been replaced with fuels derived from hemp. It would only take 6% of our U.S. land to produce enough hemp, for hemp fuel, to make us energy independent from the rest of the world. Help us teach America the truth. Make yourself a human billboard that speaks only of the truth because the only thing standing between hemp being illegally and legal is ignorance."

"Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics, and fibers. Biodiesel is the name for a variety of ester based oxygenated fuels made from hemp oil, other vegetable oils or animal fats. The concept of using vegetable oil as an engine fuel dates back to 1895 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel developed the first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. Diesel demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 using peanut oil as fuel."

http://www.artistictreasure.com/learnmorecleanair.html
http://www.hemp.com/?002,25
http://www.taima.org/en/fibre.htm
http://www.ybiofuels.org/bio_fuels/history_biofuels.html

[lonestarnot]

1. I could use some fuel biproducts!

:evilgrin:

[dysfunctional press]

2. algae is WAY better than hemp for biofuel.

hemp is for pikers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

For a truly renewable source of oil, crops or other similar cultivatable sources would have to be considered. Plants utilize photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy. It is this chemical energy that biodiesel stores and is released when it is burned. Therefore plants can offer a sustainable oil source for biodiesel production. Different plants produce usable oil at different rates. Some studies have shown the following annual production:

* Soybean: 40 to 50 US gal/acre (35 to 45,000 L/km²)
* Rapeseed: 110 to 145 US gal/acre (100 to 130,000 L/km²)
* Mustard: 140 US gal/acre (130,000 L/km²)
* Jatropha: 175 US gal/acre (160,000 L/km²)
* Palm oil: 650 US gal/acre (580,000 L/km²) <2>
* Algae: 10,000 to 20,000 US gal/acre (9,000,000 to 18,000,000 L/km²)

[FloridaPat]

5. Hadn't heard of algae for fuel. Wow. Everyone could produce their

own oil. You could drive the car you wanted based on how much oil you made at home.

I'm suprised palm oil is so high. Didn't know there was that much oil in those trees

[elehhhhna]

9. Whoa! My pool can power my car?

Algae is remarkably easy to grow.

[SHRED]

3. Yes...

http://www.hemp4fuel.com/nontesters/hemp4fuel/resources.html

[rman]

4. Need to cover approximately 1/2 of dry land with bio oil crop

Bio Fuel by the numbers:

# 1 barrel of oil = 159 liters
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/SohailAhmed.shtml

# avg yield of bio oil crop
~ 1000 liters/ha (many crops have a lower yield)
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html
=~ 6 barrels of oil per hectare per harvest (assuming one harvest per year)

# need to meet current demand
30 billion barrels/year globally
need 5 billion hectare

# earth surface area
earth = 12756 km diam

formula to calculate surface area: 4*pi*r(sq)
r = 1/2 diam

4 * 3.14 * 6400 * 6400 = 514.457.600 sq kilometer =~ 50.000.000.000 hectare

surface of dry land on earth =~ 1/4 of total =~ 12 billion hectare


# conclusion
We'd need to cover approximately 1/2 of all available dry land surface with bio oil crops (much of which is mountains, desert, forest, jungle, tundra, arctic)


Just going by the available numbers, algae look more promising.

[MadHound]

11. Algae is very promising, but hemp should be used also

We could, theoretically, supply all of our fuel needs using algae gased biodiesel. And it would only take up, again theoretically, 15,000 square miles. Even if it is twice that number, that is still and incredibly small portion of our country's surface area, and a lot of that could be done at wastewater treament facilities. Here's the numbers<http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html>

However that doesn't mean that we shouldn't put hemp out of the mix. Hemp grows in places that other crops simply can't grow, and in addition, it adds nutrients to the soil and fixes nitrogen. Hemp is more durable than cotton, easier on the enviroment, can replace wood as a paper source, can replace petroleum as plastics base, and very much more. But you're correct in saying that it would take up too much land to be viable as a biodiesel crop.

But I certainly thing that we should invest in algae to supply our fuel needs, and to legalize hemp to help out the farmer and our economy. Sadly with our government controlled by the oil industry and drug warriors, it doesn't look like either solution will be implemented in time to prevent this country from going over the cliff.

[dysfunctional press]

12. growing hemp for fuel would help the war on drugs.

if industrial hemp was grown in the u.s., it would put a definite crimp in outdoor marijuana cultivation- the pollen from the industrial plants would pollinate the marijuana, and reduce it's potency.

[rman]

15. well, the war on drugs is a RW scam anyway

War on drugs Part I: Winners, documentary (50 min) explaining 'War on Drugs' by Tegenlicht of VPRO Dutch television. After short introduction in Dutch (1 min), English spoken. Broadband internet needed.
http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/tv/vpro/tegenlicht/bb.20030622.rm?title=Bekijk%20de%20uitzending%20WAR%20ON%20DRUGS%20DEEL%20I%20in%20realvideo%20BREEDBAND%20tot%20500%20kbs

War on drugs Part II: Losers, documentary (50 min) showing downside of the 'War on Drugs' by Tegenlicht of VPRO Dutch television. After short introduction in Dutch (1 min), English spoken. Broadband internet needed.
http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/tv/vpro/tegenlicht/bb.20030629.rm?title=Bekijk%20de%20uitzending%20WAR%20ON%20DRUGS%20DEEL%20II%20in%20realvideo%20BREEDBAND%20tot%20500%20kbs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs
--

Plan Colombia - Cashing-In on the Drug War Failure
http://www.chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?TorrentID=1254
20 years of drug-wars in the Andes have actually increased cocaine imports to the U.S.
Could there be ulterior motives to a plan focused on beefing up the local military and spraying coca-fields in rebel-held parts of the country when coca is grown all around Colombia?
Featuring Noam Chomsky, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, U.S. Members of Congress John Conyers and Jim McGovern, and many others.

[12string]

6. hemp for fuel

"since it is illegal no one in our gov't is interested in it." Well now you know why it is illegal.It never had anything to do with getting high.It had everything to do with the threat it posed to the petro-chemical and wood forest product corporations.The legality of marijuana is just another product of corporate lobbyists.

[Squeech]

8. Yeah, that too.

Various factions had various motives.

You've read the Herer book? If not, the short version is, Harry Anslinger was a government agent during prohibition, which was about to end, and he figured he'd be out of a job unless he figured out something else to prohibit. He started the campaign against marijuana for his own job security. William Randolph Hearst was an enthusiastic supporter because (a) the sensationalism would help sell newspapers and (b) he owned forests that would be less valuable if hemp paper came on stream, as you point out.

Now the main opponents are Big Pharma, whose various nostrums-- especially anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds-- would never sell if people could just light up a doobie after work.

Welcome to DU. Nice user ID too-- Byrds fan, or Leadbelly fan, or what? :hi:

[slaveplanet]

14. don't forget Du pont

they were in the mix too.

They wanted nylon to replace hemp in ropemaking.

[MessiahRp]

7. We kind of need to find a solution that doesn't burn at all

"Cleaner" and cheaper fuel alternatives are nice but we really need to figure out the hydrogen and solar energies faster. Greenhouse gasses cause Global Warming but pollutants in general are causing Global Dimming and if we get rid of the gasses we've cornered ourselves into a massive temperature drop and possible ice age.

We need to stop putting pollutants up as well, and emissions from cars are a huge start to that (of course reinforcing smokestack filters would help, but Bush pretty much eliminated that because he has his fucking head up his ass).

Rp

[BrownOak]

10. I tried to use hemp as fuel for my car

but after I put it in there the damn car just wanted to sit around on the sofa, eat a bunch of chips, and watch Star Trek reruns.

[Bushy Being Born]

13. Willie Nelson will LOVE this!

;-)