Quote:
Originally Posted by Depth
I thought switchgrass(?) was the best plant to use?
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Switchgrass is not close to being used as a fuel economically hemp is already to go. Here are some more facts on hemp: At one time marijuana seemed to have a promising future as a corner stone of industry. Rudolph Diesel in 1896 assumed the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed that vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. The hemp plant is the most efficient producer of vegetable oils.
The hemp plant also contains one of the highest percentages of plant protein, and has enormous implications for solving the world's hunger problems.
In the 1930's, Ford Motor Company also saw a future in bio-mass fuels. Ford operated a successful bio-mass conversion plant that included hemp at their Iron Mountain Facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl acetate and creosote...all fundamental ingredients for modern industry, and now supplied by oil related industries. (see Appendix for applications)
The difference is that the vegetable source is renewable, cheap and clean...and that the petroleum or coal sources are limited, expensive and dirty.
By volume 30% of the hemp seed contains oil suitable for high grade diesel fuel, as well as aircraft engine and precision machine oil. Henry Ford's experiments with ethanol promised cheap readily renewable fuel. If you think methanol means compromise, you should know that many modern race cars run on methanol.
About the time Ford was making bio-mass methanol, a mechanical device to strip the outer fibers of the hemp plant appeared on the market. These machines could turn hemp into paper and fabrics quickly and cheaply. Hemp paper is superior to wood paper. The first two drafts of the U.S. Constitution we written on hemp paper. The final draft is on animal skin." End Quote.
