by
Paul
Benhaimfrom 40 minutes to 1 minute, further improving the economics of
using this bio-fuel in the near future. New hybrid electric diesel
vehicles will become available from 2001 and with bio-fuels, hemp
truly is a plant that will bring us ‘back to the future’. Details
available on HFIA website.
Hemp
for
Paper
Wood was first used in paper in the late 1800s. At this time trees
were considered a virtually free resource. Today plantations are
replacing the need for logging native old growth forests. In
contrast to the cultivation of hemp, during wood’s growth to
maturity of at least 10 years it is vulnerable to fire and insect
attack. Demand must be predicted years ahead, and there are no
financial returns until harvest. Hemp is harvested each season,
and can therefore respond to demand quickly. Hemp fibre can be
processed into all grades of paper, from cardboard to high quality
art paper. Its main use today is in filter papers, tea bags, cigarette
papers and banknotes.
Current wood pulp mills are designed to deal with the short
fibres from high lignin surrounds. Hemp benefits from having long,
stronger fibres in a lower lignin (reducing the amount of chemicals
required to extract the pulp). Chlorine based bleaches are one of
the main causes of water pollution from wood pulp mills. Less
polluting bleaching agents such as hydrogen peroxide are equally
effective on hemp pulp.
Technology is not always transferable, so although hemp
requires significantly lower energy (up to 30-50%) and chemical
inputs than fibre extraction, it cannot be used in existing mills
without alteration. The current solution is to cut the 10-20mm
fibres into 2mm lengths, the equivalent of wood based fibres which
has its various drawbacks such as loss of potential strength
gained from long-fibres and the economic and environmental cost
of an extra processing stage. While the industry decides what to