Hemp Biofuel Could Ease Our Dependence On Fossil Fuels
By Ellijah Pickering - July 28, 2018 “Ministry of Hemp”
After legalisation, hemp biofuel could be a
key part of reducing our dependence on fossil
fuels.
Fuel is everything. America would not be the
hyper-efficient economy it is today without
something to power our cars, computers, and
our Roomba vacuum cleaners.
We would be nothing but Neolithic farmers
without our electricity and gasoline. But,
anything that is truly valuable always comes
at a price.
Traditional fuel sources hurt the environment,
and they’re running out.
Air pollution from processing fossil fuels
harms the troposphere, and indirectly depletes
ozone from our atmosphere.
The price for hyper efficiency is evident,
which is why alternative fuel sources are
becoming so important.
Today we focus on a fuel source that hits close
to home. That alternative is hemp biofuel.
The cannabis plant is the gift that keeps on
giving’. This magic plant gives us CBD oil,
THC, hemp fibres and even fuel! Researchers
have made hemp into two types of biofuel:
biodiesel and ethanol.
HEMP BIODISEL
Biodiesel is produced by the pressing of hemp
seeds to extract their oils & fats.
After the extraction, the product is then put
through more steps to make it into a usable
hemp biofuel for your car.
If you’re curious to learn about the specifics
of biodiesel production, the process is
thoroughly explained by hemp.com.
The argument for hemp-derived biodiesel
comes down to convenience.
If processed correctly, biodiesel can be put
into any diesel-powered automobiles.
It can be stored and transported like diesel, so
there isn’t a need to create a new system for
transportation.
It even replaces the smell of traditional diesel
with the smell of hemp.
USING HEMP TO MAKE ETHANOL
Ethanol is traditionally made from wheat-
based crops such as corn and barley.
It’s traditionally used as an additive to
gasoline, which gave way to our “flex-fuel”
vehicles of today.
Hemp can be made into ethanol by various
forms of fermentation.
Using hemp as the main source of ethanol,
instead of food crops like wheat & corn has
clear advantages.
Not using food crops as a fuel source allows
more efficiency in food production, and hemp
can be grown in lower quality conditions
unlike corn or wheat.
Hemp-derived ethanol also shares the
advantages of transportation and usability as
biodiesel.
HEMP BIOFUEL OFFERS A MORE
SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE
Fuel alternatives like this can seem like a no-
brainer to replace our traditional fossil-fuel
sources, but there are drawbacks to these
alternative techniques.