Baylie Allman
Professor Groh
Comp 1110
June 8th, 2014 Hemp vs. Gas
Sick of those outrageous gas prices? Want an alternative fuel source, something cheaper, heather, and cleaner for our environment? Have you ever heard of hemp? This is a very overlooked fuel source because of its name.
What is hemp? Hemp is the stem of a marijuana plant, does this mean you can still get high from this? Not at all, hemp is just the stem, the stem does not have any Tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC. THC is located in the leaf of marijuana, that is what causes people to get high. There is nothing similar between marijuana leaf and hemp. They are processed differently, are made from different parts of the plant and have grown so far apart. Marijuana often gives hemp a bad name because it comes from the marijuana plant which is illegal.
Why use hemp as a fuel source? Using hemp has a lot of positives, I think the biggest positive would be that it can be grown in the United States. Hemp being grown in the United States would be eliminate expenses invested foreign countries. Hemp is a plant that can be grown 10x faster then corn, and can be grown all year long. It does not need any fertilization, it can withstand draughts and negative temperatures, each acre of hemp could yield about 1000 gallon of methanol. Hemp is naturally resistant to most pests. It can grow in tight spaces. Hemp can produce 10 tons of biomass per acre every four months, enough energy could be produced on 6% of the land enough to provide for our entire country and we use about 25% of the worlds energy today.
Hemp can be made into fuel in two ways, the oil from the pressed hempseed can be turned into biodiesel, or the stem can be made into ethanol and methanol. Biodiesel is completely biodegradable and a much cleaner fuel for the air. Even the exhaust produced from burning hempseed biodiesel has a pleasant smell. Hemp fuel can be used easily because it can be used in all the existing vehicles today without making any alterations. Both sources of hemp fuel are non-toxic and are completely biodegradable.
Using hemp for cars would make cars 75% more renewable. Trees must grow 20 to 50 years after planting before they can be harvested for commercial use. Within four months
