Hemp biofuel is a renewable resource that comes from an eco-friendly plant. Farmers can cultivate industrial hemp easily in infertile soils. That makes it an attractive potential source of viable diesel fuel.
The seeds from industrial hemp contain oils. It’s these oils that can be used for creating a diesel fuel known as hemp biofuel.
What is hemp biofuel?
Hemp biofuel or hemp biodiesel is the group name for a range of ester-based oxygenated fuels produced from hemp oil. They offer a low emission substitution for petroleum-based fuels.
Industrial hemp is a great feedstock. People have also used it quite successfully to create different kinds of liquid fuels, solid fuels, and gas including biodiesel and bioethanol.
As many other products created from hemp show, this type of biofuel is sustainable and natural.
Why should I use hemp biofuel?
Hemp biodiesel is the only substitute fuel that runs easily in unchanged, conventional diesel engine. It is environment-friendly to produce hemp biodiesel or hemp biofuel as compared to corn, palm oil, or sugar beet.
One thing that makes the crop so great is that it can grow in a variety of environments. Whether the climate is wet or dry, hot or cold, you can grow hemp.
You can get around 800 liters of biodiesel per hectare of hemp. This is a higher yield than crops such as sunflower, peanut, or soybean. Also, hemp has the capacity to produce many different fuels. These include methanol, solid fuels, and biogas from the remainder of the plant.
What are the benefits?
Hemp biofuel meets governmental standards for biodiesel quality. Many people consider it to be a superior fuel as compared to other plant-based products. It is better than conventional diesel in all aspects except for oxidation steadiness.
Being one of the earth’s top biomass resources, hemp has the capability to produce 10 tons per acre in just four months. It can produce as much as 10 times more methanol than corn.
And it’s not just the seeds that people use. For example, manufacturers use the rest of the plant to make healthy animal feed cakes. They do this by compressing the seed material and hulls. Also, hemp plant leaves and roots rejuvenate the soil making it ready for the cultivation of the next crop.
Hemp biofuel or biodiesel offers numerous environmental advantages. It gives us a carbon-neutral alternative to diesel fuel.
The emission advantages from the use of biodiesel fuels correlate to the blended rating of the fuel. Hemp seed oil is clearly beneficial over palm seed oil as a biodiesel fuel source.
That’s also because harvesting more palm oil results in a negative effect on wildlife and rain forests. Hemp biofuel does not lead to global warming.
A big obstacle to the widespread use of biodiesel is the required change to the diesel engine. Meanwhile, this is changing as the majority of the latest diesel engines are made to be biodiesel compatible.
Why should we use it?
There are a lot of reasons to use hemp. In fact, there may be too many to list.
First of all, hemp is a great crop that people can use for clothing, food, and much more. While portions of the crop turn into biofuel, people use other parts for other things.
We can certainly say that hemp oil has numerous prospective to be used as the main feedstock, or in combination with various types of oil, in biodiesel fuel production.
Despite several studies showing its great benefits, it is yet to be produced on a commercial scale. Hemp will be too expensive for biodiesel production unless the demand rises.
The current global hemp production is quite low. For example, only a handful of nations make it. It seems that there are always hurdles to overcome with this crop.
If we could grow more hemp, we could lower the cost of hemp biofuel.
At the end of the day, people use the plant for a wide range of exciting things. A biofuel is a new option for eco-friendly people.
If you’re interested in finding out more about hemp biofuel and its benefits read more on HempWiki.
Also, there are a few places that you can check out on the net. These include Phys.org and this study on NCBI.