“In the most favorable growing conditions, we obtained yields of up to 15,000 kg of stem dry matter per hectare (6,070 kg per acre). Under similar conditions, other crops such as maize, sugar beet or potato produced similar dry matter yields. All results indicate that as far its yield is concerned, fiber hemp is in no way exceptional.”
“Hemp facts and hemp fiction” Hayo M.G. van der Werf, Journal of the International Hemp Association, (1)
"The added cost of the extra drying needed for crops such as sugar cane, corn and Napier grasses make these high moisture plants an inefficient source for growing methanol. The (
“Energy Farming”, Lynn Osburn, (2)
The campaign against biofuels:
I, like many other hemp activists, am interested in the potential for hemp as a fuel source. It is one of the key reasons I have devoted my life to the re-legalization of this impressive plant. The thought of replacing easy-to-monopolize, constantly-fought-over, climate-changing, polluting petroleum with a clean, ecologically sound, cheap, renewable resource able to be grown anywhere by anyone has – with the exception of a few “cannabiphobics”, skeptics, narcs and oil barons - personal (and I suspect near universal) appeal. Thus I was dismayed to stumble across a series of recent articles on CIA watchdog Mike Ruppert's websites that attack biofuels in general as “uneconomical”. These articles claim that it takes more energy to create biofuels than one receives from the created fuel. (3) I then discovered that this is a common argument found in other books and articles. (4).
To shake my hemp-fuel confidence further, I came across an article from the International Hemp Association saying that hemp as a fuel source is “in no way exceptional.”(5)
Other arguments against biofuels are that a) there isn't enough land to both grow fuel and food with (6), and b) that ethanol isn't as efficient as gasoline, so even if ethanol is cheaper per gallon it would be more expensive per mile.
The experts:
I decided to investigate these arguments against biofuels and hemp fuels by bouncing them off people doing research in this area. I spoke with Adrian Francis Clarke of Fibre (Europe) Laboratory LTD, Don Wirtshafter of the Ohio Hempery, Tim Castleman of fuelandfiber.com, and Shaun Crew of Hemp Oil Canada.
It is important to understand that hemp provides two types of fuel; hemp biodiesel – made from the oil of the hemp seed, and hemp ethanol/methanol – made from the fermented stalk. To clarify further, ethanol is made from such things as grains, sugars, starches, waste paper & forest products, and methanol is made from woody matter. Through processes such as gasification, acid hydrolysis and enzymes, hemp can be used to make both ethanol and methanol.
I asked questions about the current prices of hemp biodeisel and hemp ethanol/methanol, and what these prices would be post cannabis relegalization. To be economically viable, these fuels would have to be cheaper than gasoline, currently priced at up to 120 cents per liter (Can.) (7) or up to 3 dollars per gallon (US) (8) Of course, petroleum prices could get much more expensive in the near future, a topic which will be covered in the third part of this article under “peak oil”.
Don Wirtshafter responded that the size of the industrial hemp industry determined how much hemp “waste” would be created, which would then dictate the price of hemp fuel. He wrote:
“Hemp oil is too valuable to burn up as fuel. It will be the waste products that become the fuels of the future. ... Because we sell the protein for a good price, the price of hemp oil drops. When I was selling the seed cake to make Hempen Ale, making the oil was almost free. Again, it is the waste stream from your primary processes that will go into power generation.”
When I asked Don about the actual price of hemp biodiesel, he replied:
“Twenty cents per gallon more than the cost of hemp oil. At this point, hemp seed oil is $15 per gallon. As we gain volume, our costs and therefore the price is dropping. Until hemp is a huge industry, it can't compete with the other huge industries. If the hemp protein powder continues to sell well, then the oil will continue to get cheaper and cheaper.”
On the topic of hemp ethanol/methanol, Don opined:
“The big change will come with green processing as is being developed by Adrian Clarke in
When I asked Adrian Clarke about the price of hemp ethanol/methanol, he replied:
“I cannot supply even a guess for the cost except to say that it must be simple and low cost for so many farmers to have done it. Ask a legal distiller what it would cost.”
Shaun Crew is a hemp seed oil expert. I asked him the hemp biodiesel question and he answered: “the price of hemp seed oil is higher than the price of corn oil at present. This may change in the years to come as acres significantly increase or yields significantly increase. Right now, hemp biodiesel could not be easily made for under $2.50 per litre.”
In Tim Castleman's article "Hemp Biomass For Energy", he wrote his observations about biodiesel too, explaining that "Some varieties are reported to yield as much as 38% oil, and a record 2,000 lbs. per acre was recorded in 1999. At this rate, 760 lbs. of oil per acre would result in about 100 allons of oil, with production costs totaling about $5.20 per gallon.(13) I asked Tim if there were any other factors that could further reduce the price per gallon. He replied: Hempseed oil is worth $30 per gallon as food. ... hemp (biodiesel) doesn't make the lineup for fuel.”
Hemp methanol, on the other hand, does make the fuel lineup. According to Tim, hemp ethanol could be produced for 1.37 per gallon plus the cost of the feedstock, with technological improvements and tax credits reducing the price another dollar or so per gallon! (14) And the cost of the feedstock would become much more available as more hemp was grown for more products, providing more and more free (or nearly-free) feedstock as a “waste product”. Could you imagine paying under 50 cents per gallon (US) or 15 cents per liter (CAN) for your hemp ethanol?!!
Fuel efficiency:
Some might argue that ethanol isn't as fuel efficient as gas – thus the dollar-per-mile ratio of hemp ethanol would make it more expensive than gas to run. Ethanol contains approx. 34% less energy per gallon than gasoline, and therefore will result in a 34% reduction in miles per gallon. (15) This problem may be overcome through designing a more efficient vehicle – recently,
Availability of waste-hemp and over-regulation Is there enough hemp around right now to provide enough waste/feedstock to replace fossil fuels? No. Will this always be the case? That depends on how successful the medical and recreational cannabis activists are in removing irrational laws around this plant. Currently, the Canadian hemp economy is under “tight controls”. (18) A minimum of 10 acres must be grown. (19) The hemp must test below 0.3% in THC. (20) The strain must be “approved”. (21) Hundreds of potentially profitable industrial strains are denied to farmers. (22) The
Breeders licenses – permitting access to the most economically rewarding element of industrial hemp farming - are difficult to obtain. One needs a science degree and 10 years experience working under an accredited breeder. (26)
“Can you provide me with an example of a false savings?” I asked.
“Well, there was that problem with USO 14 ...” Arthur responded. “... breeders were not crossing it back with it's parents.”
“But that's a fuck-up by accredited breeders.” I replied, “So certified seed doesn't necessarily mean fuck-up free seed.”
“Good point.” Responded Arthur. “It's also true that cheap common seed will help make biomass hemp fuel more economically viable.”
“Do you think that the seed growers association may be acting like an elitist club that – like doctors and lawyers – is concerned more with controlling an industry than helping clients?”
“There may be some of that in there ...”
At that point, I felt I hit upon the way the hemp industry was most unjustly over-regulated – through artificially high seed prices. Farmers cannot supply themselves with seed – they have to obtain it every year through government approved breeders. Seed is the farmer's biggest cost, varying between $6,250.00 to $16,875.00 for the average hemp farm (250 acres). For the largest hemp (3000 acres), seed costs can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Canadian hemp farmers spent somewhere between $1,250, 000 to $3,375,000.00 on seeds in 2006 (27) – an unnecessary cost ... more than a down-payment on a large hemp fuel manufacturing plant. The estimated cost of such a plant rages from $60 million for a plant that can produce 75 million liters per year (28), to $335 million, producing 1.7 billion liters per year. (29)
Banks don't invest money in hemp processing and manufacturing (30) – perhaps partly due to the red tape making hemp so artificially expensive, perhaps partly due to most of their current customers being hemp-substitute industries.
The red tape can only be justified if cannabis is considered dangerous - the moment medicinal and social hemp are re-legalized and treated like other herbs, the industrial hemp red tape will disappear. No doubt this will result in an increase in hemp seed breeders – all those considered “criminal” due to their history with breeding the drug strains will get a crack at breeding the hemp strains. Seed quality will then increase, the price will drop, and more money will stay in the pockets of farmers breeding their own seeds. Hemp products will become cheaper and more available. Farmers and cannabis cafe owners will both have capital to invest. At that point, the industrial hemp industry will be free to grow large and compete with non-renewable materials on an even playing field.
According to the 1938 Popular Mechanics article, hemp hurds “can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane”. That's just the hurds. When you factor in the fiber, the oil and the resin, the number of products hemp can produce is closer to 50,000. Almost everything that isn't glass or metal - including paper, pressed particle board, fabrics, plastics and concrete - can be made from hemp. (31) With a massive manufacturing base to reflect its massive utility, there will be plenty of hemp waste to make fuel from, driving the price down considerably.
The evil Dr. Pimental:
If the above-mentioned sources say hemp ethanol and non-hemp ethanol are so affordable, then why do so many sources claim otherwise? Apparently, the source for this other view comes from a single report from Dr. David Pimentel of
The best fuel crop?
As for the argument that hemp is not an exceptional source of cellulose, it's important to keep in mind that hemp:
1) doesn't need as much fertilizer or water as corn, switchgrass or other energy crops (33)
2) doesn't require the expensive drying required of corn and sugar cane (34),
3) can be grown where other energy crops can't (35)
4) is more resistant to “adverse fall weather” than other crops (36) and
5) has long been known to be the lowest-moisture highest-cellulose crop.
The hemp stalks being “over 75% cellulose” according to a 1929 paper from Schafer and Simmonds (37), with more conservative estimates indicating 53-74% of the bark being cellulose. (38) According to the Stanford Research Institute and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, it is woody, low-moisture herbaceous plants which make the best biomass for liquid fuels. (39) If one goes beyond simple cellulose-level comparisons and examines the cost-per-gallon with these extra cultivation and processing and transportation costs taken into account, hemp seems to be the best candidate for a fuel crop. Of course, all crops should be grown in rotation – too much of one thing is bad for the soil – but hemp seems the best crop to add to the rotation if we want to replace fossil fuels with something else in the tank.
Not enough land?
Sidebar:
Make your own biofuels:
The process isn't quite rocket science, but involves many steps and many choices. For diesel-powered car drivers, one must decide if one is a) using the oil just as it is -- usually called SVO fuel (straight vegetable oil); b) mixing it with kerosene (paraffin) or petroleum diesel fuel, or with biodiesel, or blend it with a solvent, or with gasoline; or c) converting it to biodiesel. For regular gas-power car drivers, there are gasification and distillation processes that could turn any plant matter into fuel. Large car companies are already producing ethanol-friendly vehicles. Some sources describe the adjustments to the engine required to convert a gas-powered car into an
ethanol-powered one as “minor”, others as “extremely complicated”. As more and more people make such adjustments, they should become easier and less costly. These methods are too detailed to explain here, but there are many good resources on the internet where you can learn to make your own biofuels. Here are just a few:
“There was always the possibility, according to Kettering's friend Charles Stewart Mott, "that if a time ever came when the sources of [fossil] heat and energy were ever used up ... that there would always be available the capturing of... energy from the sun... through agricultural products ..." Henry Ford, Charles Kettering and the "Fuel of the Future" Copyright Bill Kovarik, Ph.D., 1998 (114) Peak oil is the theory that once humans have reached maximum oil production, the price will get very high very fast, with possible catastrophic effects. Some observers suggest that the decline will prompt an economic and social meltdown on a scale last experienced in the Great Depression — or perhaps even the Black Death. (115)
Just imagine what would happen to you if your energy and fuel costs were to be three or four or five times that of what you are paying today. Now imagine the effect of that on a national or international scale. Already the price of synthetic oil has risen to its highest in over 50 years ... perhaps its highest ever. (116) At least one reputable source argues that peak oil came and went in December of 2005. (117)
There is every reason to believe Dick Cheney understood peak oil as far back as 1999, when he said “...by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? ... the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies ...” (118) Perhaps peak oil is how our elites justify their oil wars to themselves. For them, it's the only solution to rapidly running out of the types of energy reserves that are subject to monopoly and control. From a hemp activists perspective, it is important to note that something can be done to prevent hardships coming from fossil fuel dependency and peak oil – but only if we act now, while energy is still relatively cheap.
Our society could work together to create ethanol factories and windmills and solar panels and urban gardens, while cutting back on energy waste and meat-eating. If, however, we wait until the crisis hits, we may be too late to make the transition. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) announced on October 31st, 2006 that the U.S. production of biodiesel could reach 250 million gallons in 2006, triple the amount produced in 2005. (119) U.S. production of ethanol has surpassed the 4.5 billion gallon mark as of July 1, 2006. (120) While these facts are encouraging, we still have a long way to go to reduce the 20 million barrels of oil per day the US market consumes. (121)
Climate change
“Each crop produces as much oxygen as it will later produce of CO2 if every bit of it is burned as fuel, creating a balanced cycle. Furthermore, hemp deposits 10 percent of its mass in the soil as roots and up to 30 percent as leaves which drop during the growing season. This means that some 20 to 40 percent more oxygen can be produced each season than will later be consumed as fuel – a net gain in clean air. Call it a “reverse greenhouse effect”.” -Chris Conrad, “Hemp – Lifeline to the Future”, (122)
The other emergency surrounding the fuel debate is climate change. There is much evidence to suggest that the use of fossil fuels is creating a “greenhouse effect” in our atmosphere that has led to the melting of the icecaps and glaciers, an increase in the number and intensity of storms, floods and droughts, and a warming and rising of the oceans. Some people – including Germany's environment minister and Britain's deputy prime minister - consider the damage done by hurricane Katrina in 1995 to be caused by this human-made climate change.(123) The consensus that fossil fuels cause climate change is quite strong. Those who study peer-reviewed reports know this to be true. For example, one study pointed out that out of 928 peer reviewed articles dealing with climate change, none doubted global warming was the cause. (124) Exxon Mobil (the largest chunk of the Rockefeller empire) has been pouring millions of dollars into creating the illusion that there is still doubt as to the cause of climate change. (125)
I recommend that everyone who still has doubts about the human factor in climate change check out the film “An Inconvenient Truth” - or pick up the book version. It's quite convincing. As hemp activists, we need to inform ourselves about climate change, particularly about one of the solutions to prevent catastrophe: carbon sequestration. Plants remove carbon from the atmosphere by incorporating it into biomass through photosynthesis. The Kyoto Protocol on climate change calls for an increase in carbon sequestration. (126) Hemp is an ideal crop for carbon sequestration, as it both provides the cheapest bio fuel and reduces the greenhouse effect as it grows. But, like peak oil, the clock is ticking, as there is only so much time to start “sequestering” before the damage from climate change overwhelms the relief efforts. The time to change over to hemp fuel is now.
The solution is obvious: end cannabis prohibition, remove the red tape and switch subsidies Even with record windfall profits, the oil industry is still subsidized to the tune of roughly $6 billion per year in the US. (127) That's not including the additional taxpayer tab for the oil wars and climate change – hundreds of billions of dollars for each of those. Just think of how many ethanol fuel plants 6 billion dollars could build. We cannabis activists must join forces with the environmentalists and the anti-war crowd and demand that the energy subsidies are switched from oil to ethanol and other renewables. And we must encourage these other activists to vocally, financially and electorally support our efforts to re-legalize cannabis, remove all that red
tape killing our hemp industries, and facilitate bank loans for projects such as hemp fuel plants, to give humanity a decent chance to replace these unsustainable fuel systems.
In conclusion ... some people laugh when I tell them I'm a cannabis activist for environmental and anti-oil war reasons. But it's absolutely true. So all you environmentalists and anti-war activists that have so far been silent about hemp better start to get noisy real soon, because ending the totalitarian war on cannabis and the cannabis community is probably the key to solving those other world-threatening problems. And for all you cannabis-lovers who are only focused on the medicinal or economic benefits of cannabis re-legalization, it's time to add “saving the environment” to your list ... because when you think about it, smog, oil wars and climate change are some of the biggest buzzkills imaginable.
