by
Paul
BenhaimBlended hemp pellets are suitable for injection moulded
under special conditions of heat and pressure to produce the
finished moulded product. Ongoing research and development
aims to provide other methods of using hemp plastic. At the time
of going to press, Hemp Plastic (UK) Ltd. (suppliers of blended
hemp pellets) were working with the United Nations and planning
to provide full-time research into the furthering of this type of
applications. For further details go to http://www.hempplastic.com
Hemp
as
a
Bio-Fuel
Henry Ford dreamed that someday automobiles would be grown
from the soil. Ford motor company, after years of research,
produced an automobile with a plastic body. Its tough body used a
mixture of cellulose fibres including hemp. The plastic withstood
blows up to 10 times as great as steel could without denting. Its
weight was also 2/3 than of a regular car, making it more
economical. Henry Ford was forced to use petroleum due tohemp
prohibition. His plans to fuel his fleet of vehicles with plant power
also failed due to alcohol prohibition at the time. However, in the
1930s Ford’s biomass conversion plant in Michigan created
methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl-acetate and creosote – all
basic ingredients now supplied by oil related industries. Being
cheaper, cleaner and renewable, Ford obviously saw the potential
for plants as fuel.
‘Why use up the forests which were centuries in the
making the mines which required ages to lay down if we can get
the equivalent of forests and mineral products from the annual
growth of the fields?’ Henry Ford
Hemp offers a valuable and sustainable fuel of the future –
‘growing oil wells’. It is a viable diesel substitute with an output
equivalent of approximately 1000 gallons of methanol per acre per
year (10 tons biomass/acre, each yielding 100-gal. methanol/ton).