In addition to producing a beautiful fiber, purifying polluted land, feeding animals and humans and offering numerous therapeutic outlets, hemp can be transformed into fuel, in this case biodiesel or ethanol. Will grass power the cars of tomorrow? Is cannabis the eco-responsible fuel that will reconcile us with the environment? Some answers.
Hemp can provide 2 types of fuel; biodiesel, made from pressed hemp seed oil, and ethanol, made from fermented hemp stalks. And it turns out that the beautiful plant could well be the planet’s greenest fuel source. Crude oil and natural gas are the two materials that provide almost 70% of the world’s energy consumption.
Two products that come from reservoirs thousands of meters underground. Both are fossil fuels formed over millions of years by the decomposition of dead organisms. Their production is expensive and has a huge impact on the environment.
A viable alternative… but less profitable
Hemp, on the other hand, is a plant that can be grown almost anywhere, producing high biomass yields for fuel production in just a few months.
And while hemp-based fuels are around 50% less efficient than gasoline, the environmental benefits of growing hemp for fuel far outweigh those of sourcing crude oil or natural gas (which themselves are most negative). Here again, finding an environmentally-friendly alternative to crude oil or natural gas is not really difficult.
Made from fermented hemp stalks
Biodiesel is made by blending vegetable or animal fats with ethanol. Today, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), over 50% of biodiesel is made from soybean oil. Ethanol, on the other hand, is generally produced from corn or sugar cane.
As a crop, cannabis offers many advantages over soy, corn and sugarcane. The plant density per hectare for corn, sugarcane and soya, for example, is 44,000, 50,000 and 200,000 kilos respectively. Hemp, meanwhile, can be grown at a density of up to 2,400,000 kg/hectare, according to Manitoba Agriculture.
Culture in the tropics
Hemp also triumphs over soya, corn and sugar cane on several crucial issues: it can be grown in almost any climate, can be ready for harvest in just 4 months, and is particularly resistant to pests and disease. It can even help extract heavy metals and other contaminants from polluted soils, which is more than we can say for soya (which kills biodiversity and contributes to soil erosion).
Ready to harvest in just 4 months and particularly resistant to pests and diseases.
At harvest time, hemp produces a LOT of biomass. According to Manitoba Agriculture, industrial hemp grown for fiber can produce up to 6 tons per hectare, while cereal plants (grown for seed) produce around 1000 kg per hectare.
So why can’t Shell or BP make cannabis gasoline?
With so many benefits to growing hemp for fuel (in addition to its countless other uses), it seems hard to understand why we’re still not reaping the rewards of this miracle plant.
Black gold versus green gold
What’s stopping the world from going green and hemp?
Above all, turning the world over to hemp biodiesel would require huge amounts of farmland. According to Medium, half the United States would have to be covered in hemp just to meet the country’s demand. Not to mention that hemp biodiesel would cost around 13 times more than regular diesel. Hemp ethanol, on the other hand, could be produced for less than €0.50 per liter. And that’s interesting.
Hemp ethanol could be produced for less than €0.50 per liter
Unfortunately, hemp is still held back by the fact that it’s still a crop in the making, and reaches its highest prices when grown for the food, cosmetics and CBD industries. And also the fact that Standard Oil, Gulf Oil and DuPont were linked to cannabis prohibition in the 1930s might also have something to do with why we don’t fill our cars with hemp.
But that’s another story.
