Posted on 04/23/2006 9:03:02 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Biodiesel can be made from domestically produced, renewable oilseed crops such as hemp. With over 30 million successful U.S. road miles hemp boidiesel could be the answer to our cry for cheaper fuel. We have spent the last century polluting our beautiful country with our petroleum based fuels that could have easily been replaced with fuels derived from hemp. It would only take 6% of our U.S. land to produce enough hemp, for hemp fuel, to make us energy independent from the rest of the world. Help us teach America the truth. Make yourself a human billboard that speaks only of the truth because the only thing standing between hemp being illegally and legal is ignorance.
What is Hemp Fuel?
Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics, and fibers. Biodiesel is the name for a variety of ester based oxygenated fuels made from hemp oil, other vegetable oils or animal fats. The concept of using vegetable oil as an engine fuel dates back to 1895 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel developed the first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. Diesel demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 using peanut oil as fuel.
Why Hemp Fuel?
Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that runs in any conventional, unmodified diesel engine. It can be stored anywhere that petroleum diesel fuel is stored. Biodiesel is safe to handle and transport because it is as biodegradable as sugar, 10 times less toxic than table salt, and has a high flashpoint of about 300 F compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which has a flash point of 125 F.
Biodiesel can be made from domestically produced, renewable oilseed crops such as hemp.
Biodiesel is a proven fuel with over 30 million successful US road miles, and over 20 years of use in Europe.
When burned in a diesel engine, biodiesel replaces the exhaust odor of petroleum diesel with the pleasant smell of hemp, popcorn or french fries. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel in the US to complete EPA Tier I Health Effects Testing under section 211(b) of the Clean Air Act, which provide the most thorough inventory of environmental and human health effects attributes that current technology will allow.
Biodiesel is 11% oxygen by weight and contains no sulfur. The use of biodiesel can extend the life of diesel engines because it is more lubricating than petroleum diesel fuel, while fuel consumption, auto ignition, power output, and engine torque are relatively unaffected by biodiesel.
The Congressional Budget Office, Department of Defense, US Department of Agriculture, and others have determined that biodiesel is the low cost alternative fuel option for fleets to meet requirements of the Energy Policy Act.
Thank heaven I'm not the only one who hates those thick-skinned tomato look-alikes. At the prices they charge for them, you would expect something that remotely tastes like a tomato.
When possible, I drive out to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays and buy local tomatoes, but Florida tomatoes just don't make the cut. I grew up in Iowa and we always grew lots of tomatoes in our garden. For a while I lived in northern Ohio and they had excellent local tomatoes (Farmer's Market in Cuyahoga Falls). I love the smell of fresh tomatoes when you pick them off the vine. I think it comes from the mostly from the leaves, but it turns on my tomato cravings.
1) Massive increases in nuclear power sources. 2)Increased development of oil sands (Canada) and shale oil (US). Canada is currently producing oil from oil sands at about $20 per barrel production costs, compared with $1 per barrel production costs from Saudi Arabia. Because of this, Canada is now the number 2 nation in the world (next to Saudi Arabia)in oil reserves. 3)Increased development of liquid fuel (for mobile uses) from alternative sources such as coal, bio-products, etc. Current technology can produce these fuels, but at a cost that is somewhat higher than petroleum based liquid fuels. 4)Increased development of known US oil reserves: ANWR, Gulf of Mexico, and other off-shore reserves that are currently limited in production for political, not economic reasons.
....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
What was the question again?
New DNA 'Fingerprinting' Technique Separates Hemp From Marijuana
Using new DNA "fingerprinting" techniques, two University of Minnesota researchers have become the first to unequivocally separate hemp plants from marijuana plants with genetic markers. Hemp, a crop grown for durable fiber and nutritious seed, and marijuana, the most abundant illegal drug of abuse in the United States, both belong to the species Cannabis sativa. They differ in levels of the psychoactive drug tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) but are otherwise difficult to tell apart. The technique holds promise for distinguishing different cultivars (domesticated plant lines) in U.S. criminal cases. It may also prove useful in countries where the cultivation of hemp is permitted but marijuana is illegal, as in Canada and Europe. The work appears in the March issue (volume 51, No. 2) of the Journal of Forensic Science.
You folks continue to ignore the pr/gallon economics will all these statements.
If and when we get comfortable with 4-5 dollars per gallon gas without raising taxes, and the real true cost of the product, not the speculative value, grows to this high level, then and only then will agricultural products be able to compete.
We are not there yet, and have a long way to go. Even now, with the cheapest Ag alternative being ethanol, it has to be subsidized to be produced.
So forget it!
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