"Anything that can be made from hydrocarbons
(oil, coal, natural gas), can be made from carbohydrates
(plant material)."
- Source Unknown.
HEMP BURNS AND
THEREFORE PRODUCES ENERGY.
The U.S.A. Hemp Museum has been interested
in fuels and energy from its start in 1990.
The curator spent many hours in the library of the California
Energy Commission (C.E.C.) hoping to learn about biomass
(plant matter) for fuels and energy. During the 1992
election campaign I wrote an article called A NATURAL
ENERGY POLICY, which is included in this section.
Among the things I learned from the C.E.C. was that Sacramento
had a power plant not far from the Capitol built to burn
biomass collected as waste tree, shrub, and grass trimmings.
The plant was not in operation. As it was explained to me
the green matter to be used as fuel was always too wet and
irregular in composition to adequately fire the plant. California
now has 33 biomass power plants in the state, operating
mostly on forest logging waste. These power plants
could burn year round with hemp for energy.
Hemp will produce cleaner air and reduce
greenhouse gases. When biomass fuel burns, it produces CO2
(the major cause of the greenhouse effect), the same as
fossil fuel; but during the growth cycle of the plant,
photosynthesis removes as much CO2 from theair
as burning the biomass adds, so hemp actually cleans
the atmosphere. After the first cycle there is no further
loading to the atmosphere. At this time the U.S. has not
signed an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases
to 1990 levels by the year 2000. Maybe the Bush administration
[now Clinton] [now Bush] hasn't
heard about hemp, maybe you should write him a short note
before he leaves, mention time is important. When biomass
(hemp) is used for other more permanent applications, say
a library book that will last 1500 years, and then can be
recycled seven times, or building materials in a home (I
never thought what it might do to the price of a home),
potential greenhouse carbon is tied up and does not go back
into the atmosphere.
YES WE CAN GROW
OUR WAY OUT OF OUR ENERGY CRISIS WITH HEMP
from the
television show TIME 4 HEMP- THE BILLION DOLLAR CROP
AMAZINGLY, WITH HEMP,
THE FOSSIL
FUELS BURNED AND POLLUTING OUR ATMOSPHERE
ARE AVAILABLE
ONCE AGAIN AS A RESOURCE,
UNTIL A FAVORABLE CO2 LEVEL IS
REACHED.
Hemp burns and therefore
produces energy. As a direct fuel hemp is used in the stoves
of China for the hot fast fires of wok cooking.
A bundle of hemp stalks leans next to this Chinese kitchen
(shown left).
Hemp in history was burned as oil in
lamps for light. And is much less smelly than kerosene
based lamp oil. Oil from hemp seeds can power existing
diesel engines (see sample of bio-diesel below), with reduced
sulfur and carbon monoxide emissions. Bio-mass (vegetation
or plant matter) fuels such as methanol (wood alcohol) can
power modified gasoline engines, or supply hydrogen for
fuel cell applications. Twenty thousand methanol burning
cars were tested in California on government and utility
fleets. Seventy methanol pumps were installed around
the state. Hemp stalks are the best biomass
on the planet. And again because it is so important, bio-mass
crops absorb carbon dioxide emitted by cars and power plants,
mitigating the greenhouse effect.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, November,
1989. Article: "The Case for Methanol."
Methanol-fueled car could integrate various features to
attain higher efficiency and generate fewer emissions than
a conventional gasoline-fueled car. Cool burning methanol
needs no radiator so the front of the car can be very streamlined.
Methanol and electric, with flywheel design, the earth would
love it.
The U.S.A. Hemp Museum invited
itself to the Alternative Energy Conference whose program
is shown here (left). The University of Iowa had driven
a 3/4 ton bio-diesel powered truck to the conference.
The bio-diesel was made from the oil of rapeseed (canola)
and 10% methanol. Samples of the rapeseed and bio-diesel
were donated to the museum. The museum was set up
just outside the conference room in the Westin Crown Center,
Kansas City, Missouri, June 15-18, 1994, and was very well
received by the energy group attending.
BY RICHARD M. DAVIS, CURATOR. U.S.A. HEMP MUSEUM,
1992 ELECTION
Something has happened on the alternative energy front
that is so revolutionary that all people connected with
or interested in improving the quality of life on our planet
should be aware of it. A solar collector has been re-discovered
(you probably think this is a joke). Once declared useless
by our government in 1937, this collector is so powerful
it could replace every type of fossil fuel energy product
(oil, coal, and natural gas).
This solar collector is a green plant, one of the most
advanced in the plant kingdom. It uses the evenly distributed
light of the sun to grow biomass (biologically produced
matter). This plant is the earth's number one biomass
resource or fastest growing annual plant for agriculture
on a worldwide basis, producing up to 14 tons per acre.
This is the only biomass source available that is
capable of producing all the energy needs of the U.S. and
the world.
Henry Ford was an innovator
in wood alcohol (methanol) made from hemp.
Bring our dollars home. We need to gain a vision of
where we have to go to heal our home, stop the poisons,
stop the wars, learn the natural ways, learn to love our
common home and our sisters and brothers. We need local,
family
Many technologies exist for
converting biomass to different forms of energy.
What's
needed to solve the problem of global warming is family owned
hemp energy farms
to lift us out of the death-like grip of big oil; and give
promise to future generations of a renewable, sustainable
energy source.
Fuel is not synonymous with petroleum,
let's getover that.
New annually
renewable biomass energy systems will create millions of
new jobs.
In case you doubt the power of this miracle
plant, consider what else it can do: Replace all wood pulp
paper products with a far superior, dioxin-free paper.
Provide the strongest textiles, ropes, fabrics, and fibers
for clothing (it is softer than cotton); Provide time tested
and safer medicines for a hundred or more different medical
conditions; Provide high protein food stuffs (soybeans alone
have a bit more protein) and high quality vegetable oil
(with heart helping Omega 3 fatty acids like fish oil);
Provide raw materials for plastics and building materials
like composition board; Provide raw materials for 50,000
commercial uses that are economically viable and market
competitive; And, oh yes, provide a safe, sane, non-violent
recreational drug. For an energy policy we can live with
and flourish with for years to come, think hemp. Think
Cannabis sativa, the plant. Let's
allow competition in the best free market sense. Put it
out there, let it fly and be free. Free at last.
Back to energy. Why worry about energy? Let me get your
attention: According to The Emperor, eighty per cent
(80%) of the total dollar expense of living for each human
being is energy cost. That means that 33 hours of each 40
hour work week goes to pay for energy costs in goods and
services, whichever way (manufacturing, transportation,
heating, cooking, lighting, etc) you purchase.
"Our current fossil energy sources also
supply about 80% of the solid and airborne pollution which
is slowly poisoning the planet. (See U.S. EPA report 1983-89
on coming world catastrophe from carbon dioxide imbalance
caused by burning fossil fuels -(oil, coal, and natural
gas) [now called the greenhouse effect]. The cheapest substitute
for these expensive and wasteful energy methods is not wind
or solar panels, nuclear; geothermal, and the like, but
using the evenly distributed light of the sun to grow plant
biomass."
GLOBAL WARMING: The
Greenpeace Report. Edited by Jeremy Leggett.
1990.
"Forty-nine Nobel-prizewinning
scientists have appealed to President Bush (Sr.) to curb
greenhouse-gas emissions, professing that 'global warming
has emerged as the most serious environmental threat of
the 21st century.'"
A decade later another Bush President
refuses to cooperate with global concern on global warming.
The American farmer has been displaced by the synthetic
fossil fuel people, and we have all paid the price. Who
do we want to give our energy dollars to?
We need an exportable,
ecologically sound lifestyle to sell to the world. We are
a world at need, for food, clean water, shelter, and energy
(clean, renewable, natural, almost universal energy from
hemp). George Bush had us fight an oil war at a cost of
American lives, Iraqi lives, and $61 billion, to save a
lifestyle (synthetic oil style) that is not only not
exportable but rapidly ruining our country as well.
The Cannabis hemp/marijuana movement is not an undercurrent
in this country; it is an undertow. We are going to flood
the American people with American hemp history and pride
in our connection with this plant. I want you to understand
the hard truths that marijuana prohibition has obscured.
This plant (or any plant) should never have been made illegal.
Our first flag was made of Cannabis hemp/marijuana. Our
constitution was written on hemp paper.
The facts are in
Jack Herer
's
book: The Emperor Wears NoClothes: Hemp and
the Marijuana Conspiracy, [and Hemp: Lifeline
to the Future, by Chris Conrad]. These books are
required reading for every American to learn the lost history
of hemp, hemp/marijuana prohibition, and how hemp can save
the world from energy madness, if we can act immediately
to put hemp back into the free market - your market. Then
farmers can plant our nations fuel, fiber, paper, medicine,
food, plastic and future. It is our choice. How long will
we have to wait to establish a sane and survivable lifestyle,
based on the natural cycles such as that of hemp.
This is the ecological truth: The sooner we act to end
our synthetic society the less damage to earth. We Americans
- 5% of the world population - in our drive for more
"net
worth"
and "productivity"
use 25% to 40% of the world's
energy. As a country, we have been horribly deceived for
the past 54 years. Long enough. Never again. The repression
of information about hemp has cost the U.S. about 80% of
our petroleum reserves by the year 2000. Add to that the
70% of our forests that did not have to be cut down for
making paper. Add to that too many family farms gone. Add
to that the 50,000 Americans and the 10,000 Canadians killed
annually by acid rain from burning high-sulfur coal.
The world struggle for money is actually a struggle for
energy, as it is through energy that we may produce food,
shelter, transportation and entertainment. As we have seen
with the Bush Administration, it is this struggle which
often erupts into open war. Ultimately, whether from too
much pollution, too many wars, too high a price, the world
has no other rational environmental choice but to give up
fossil fuels.
Because of the second prohibition that surrounds Cannabis
hemp/marijuana, we are not told the truth even by our own
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists. Hemp
is the home grown, annually renewable, CHEAPEST source of
energy.
USA HEMP
MUSEUM PRESENTS:
A PEACEFUL SOLUTION - HEMP BIOFUEL
Song by Willie & Amy Nelson - Sung by Willie Nelson
[Allow blocked content to see the videos]
"Rather than as a crisis,
the energy problem can be viewed as a challenge and opportunity."
- 1983. California Agriculture.
"A co-generation system for converting
walnut shells into energy was built by Diamond Walnut Growers
to supply power for its Stockton plant. The cooperative
also markets energy to local utility companies." - California Agriculture, University of California,
1983.
Keep in mind the excellent properties of Cannabis hemp/marijuana
in reading the following article. Hemp is clearly the ecological,
and economical choice. "The
Case for Methanol,"
printed in Scientific American, November,
1989, was written by two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
scientists, Charles L. Gray, Jr., and Jeffery A. Alson.
The authors maintain that a move to pure methanol fuel would
reduce vehicular emissions of hydrocarbons and green house
gases and could lessen U.S. dependency on foreign energy
sources. Here are a few paragraphs from the article, obtainable
from any library:
"The private
automobile has shaped U.S. society to a degree unparalleled
by any other product of the industrial age. By providing
mobility and convenience particularly attuned to the American
desire for personal freedom, the automobile has come to
dominate not only the nation's transportation network but
also its very culture. And the automotive industry has become
a pillar of the economy, accounting for more than 10 percent
of the gross national product and some 20 percent of all
consumer expenditures. Yet the automobile ALSO THREATENS
the quality of life, contaminating both urban air and the
global atmosphere, where automobile emissions contribute
to the green house effect. The automotive industry must
overcome unprecedented technical, political and social challenges
if these serious environmental problems are to be solved.
To achieve this goal, we believe the nation must begin
making a transition to a new automotive fuel. Having
studied a wide range of alternatives, we think that fuel
should be methanol [wood
alcohol]. A move to methanol could achieve emission reductions
far beyond those that are feasible even with advanced emission
controls on gasoline vehicles. Although the past 15 years
have seen substantial reductions in noxious pollutants and
greenhouse gases from individual vehicles, the number of
vehicles has been steadily increasing. Consequently, more
than 100 cities still have ambient levels of carbon monoxide,
particulate matter and ozone (generated from photo-chemical
reactions with hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust) that exceed
the levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency
to protect public health. As the nation's
fleet continues to grow in the next decade, air quality
will worsen unless vehicles can be developed that are much
clearer than those on the roads today.
Introducing methanol to the U.S. transportation infrastructure
would require relatively modest changes for the automotive
and energy industries. Our research has convinced us
that this is the only practical means to achieve major reductions
in vehicle emissions while maintaining the personal mobility
that Americans have come to expect. Although there will
be costs in making such a transition, there will also be
significant benefits not only for the environment but most
likely for the nation=s
economic health as well. We have incontrovertible evidence
from vehicle tests and computer simulations that vehicles
operating on pure methanol would bring about dramatic decreases
in urban levels of ozone and toxic substances. What
is more, methanol can be produced with current technologies
from a variety of abundant sources, including natural gas,
coal, wood, and even organic garbage [and the cheapest source,
HEMP]. By beginning a transition to methanol, the nation
could ultimately lessen its dependence on foreign sources
of energy."
Ford Van runs on any mix
of gasoline and alcohol. California Energy Commission.
From The Emperor..., p.43:
"The biomass
conversion process can produce [ethanol], methanol, fuel
oil, charcoal fuel, as well as the basic chemicals of industry:
acetone, ethyl acetate, tar, pitch, and creosote. The Ford
Motor Company successfully operated a biomass
"cracking" plant
in the 1930's at Iron Mountain, Michigan...Henry Ford even
grew Cannabis hemp/marijuana on his estate after 1937, possibly
to prove the cheapness of methanol production."
[In the present year, on January 28, 1999,
The Los Angeles Times printed a special section called "Highway
1" which featured innovations in technology about autos.]
"Fuel Cell Technology: Fuel cells
are being called the best possible source of power for the
electric car of the future. Car companies are spending billions
of dollars on development. Fuel cells use a chemical reaction
to produce electricity from hydrogen, which can be stored
in tanks in the vehicle or distilled from gasoline, methane,
and otherhydrocarbon-based fuels. [Add hemp
bio-fuels].
Again from The Emperor..., look what happened
when we had a national emergency in World War II, the most
recent time America asked its farmers to grow more Cannabis
hemp/marijuana:
"Our national energy needs are an undeniable
national security priority. Look what Uncle Sam can do when
pushed into action:
In 1942, Japan cut off our supplies of vital hemp and
course fibers. Cannabis hemp/marijuana which had been outlawed
as the "Assassin of Youth"
just four years earlier was suddenly safe enough for our
government to ask the kids in the Kentucky 4H Clubs to grow
at least half an acre but preferably two acres of hemp each.
(U. of KY Ag. Extension Leaflet 25, Mar., 1943.)
In 1942-43 farmers were made to attend showings of the
USDA film "Hemp for Victory," [Text printed herein]
sign that they had seen the film, and read a hemp cultivation
booklet. Hemp harvesting was made available at low or no
cost. Five dollar tax stamps were available and 360, 000
acres of cultivated hemp was the goal by 1943.
Farmers from 1942 through 1945 who agreed to grow hemp
were waived from serving in the military, along with their
sons; That's how vitally important hemp was to America during
World War II."
I have said this before, and here is the proof of what
we did in a crisis, the American farmer is two years away
from a major hemp crop. We are in an environmental
crisis of enormous proportions, and instead of asking the
American farmer to assist again, George Bush led us to war
[as his son is now doing]. This is just another one of those
situations in which George Bush is damned if he knew about
hemp and didn't employ it, and damned if he just didn't
know.
"DIE FOR PETROLEUM or LIVE
WITH HEMP (choose one)"
The U.S.
energy information agency predicts that if current trends
continue, the U.S. will be importing 70% of its oil consumption
by the year 2000. (70% is correct, and we may be fighting
another oil war as it looks on February 18, 2003.)
HEMPCAR - ALLOW BLOCKED CONTENT TO VIEW VIDEO
As the first oil war in the Middle East clearly showed us,
there is no energy secure future with fossil fuel.
The U.S. energy information agency predicts that if current
trends continue, the U.S. will be importing 70% of its oil
consumption by the year 2000 [which we are]. We now import
about 50% of our oil, money sent out of the country.
Yet this is exactly what the current administration calls
its national energy strategy. More oil, more nuclear power,
more oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas [now
the Artic].
Here we are in Jan., 2001,
still trying to get it right and failing. There will
be no provision in this bill for growing hemp.
We as a nation, we as farmers, have been cheated and lied
to by our government. The premier resource plant in the
world is illegal here -prohibited. Your energy bill
may be double now what it could be with hemp. Our economy
could leap forward with this new direction, along with recycling,
insulation in buildings, better mileage in alcohol or fuel
cell cars, more wind and solar, more alternative energy
research, and we would be on the way to energy self-sufficiency.
Under present conditions, because of the bogus war on hemp
by the Bush Administration [now Clinton] [now Bush], scientists
and bureaucrats are afraid to talk, afraid to admit that
hemp could indeed save us from the synthetic society and
dead end fossil fuel.
In my opinion, we will use Cannabis
hemp/marijuana in a few years because we will be forced
to do so by acid rain and greenhouse gasses. WHY WAIT? WHY
WAIT!? Here is our natural fuel source. Here is our paper
source, that will enable our forests to recover and help
remove greenhouse gasses. Here is a multi-trillion dollar
resource that can be grown at home -and on and on.
Modern Japanese computer
controlled sailing ship, 1981 National Geographics on Energy.
Six thousand or more years ago an ancestor of ours stood
up on their raft held up some palm fronds and discovered
sailing. We gave up sailing for fossil fuels and know
we have to start over. Now it's sail or the planet
may die. We must start erring on the side of survival
until we get a sustainable lifestyle for the planet's people.
I don't
get it. You, through our government, are telling me we can't
use this resource because it might get me high. What kind
of nonsense is that? I believe it is my right to do in my
homestead as I please with hemp in pursuit of my own happiness
-my inalienable right. Besides I already have the constitutional
right to get high on drugs (any alcohol product, coffee,
tobacco, etc.). Are we really afraid that my brain will
fry like an egg in a pan, and other such lies. Somehow after
smoking Cannabis hemp/marijuana for 25 years daily, I don't
think it is my brain that is fried, it is our earth - fried
by generations of fossil fuel (coal and oil and natural
gas) burning, fried by nuclear radiation and nuclear weapons
testing and nuclear power production, fried by millions
of pounds of poisons used each year on our food and fiber
crops, and fried by the unnecessary destruction of 70% of
our forests since 1937 for paper.
Guess what the choices are?
Guess what was done about it?
This patch suggests the question,
fossil fuel or hemp.?
I know the plant Cannabis sativa; I grow the plant.
I want to say to all those in positions of power or persuasion
in our government and elsewhere: Please do not wait one
more minute to free Cannabis hemp/marijuana. If you wait,
an entire year will be lost. Then a decade will be lost.
[A decade has been lost since the writing of this paper].
We do not have a lot of years to waste. Do it for me, do
it for our country, do it for our planet earth. Free Hemp.
More about hemp: Hemp's per acre output of fuel is about
10 times more than corn, at less cost than corn, and with
less environmental damage than corn. "Hemp is a hearty plant
that squeezes out weeds and pests, without the heavy fertilization
that corn, cotton, tobacco, and other crops need. Hemp is
resistant to many insects, reducing the need for chemical
pesticides."
- (BACH)
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, November,
1989. Article: "The Case for Methanol."
Methanol-fueled car could integrate various features to
attain higher efficiency and generate fewer emissions than
a conventional gasoline-fueled car.
Hemp will produce cleaner air and reduce greenhouse gases.
When biomass fuel burns, it produces CO2 (the major cause
of the greenhouse effect), the same as fossil fuel; but
during the growth cycle of the plant, photosynthesis
removes as much CO2 from theair as burning the biomass
adds, so hemp actually cleans the atmosphere. After
the first cycle there is no further loading to the atmosphere.
At this time the U.S. has not signed an international treaty
to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
Maybe the Bush administration [now Clinton] [now Bush] hasn't
heard about hemp, maybe you should write him a short note
before he leaves, mention time is important. When biomass
(hemp) is used for other more permanent applications, say
a library book that will last 1500 years, and then can be
recycled seven times, or building materials in a home (I
never thought what it might do to the price of a home),
potential greenhouse carbon is tied up and does not go back
into the atmosphere. AMAZINGLY, WITH HEMP, THE FOSSIL
FUELS BURNED AND POLLUTING OUR ATMOSPHERE ARE AVAILABLE
ONCE AGAIN AS A RESOURCE, UNTIL A FAVORABLE CO2 LEVEL IS
REACHED.
-END OF ESSAY.
"FREQUENT FLYER?"
Pot label from the 1980's. From a series
called FLYING LESSONS, sent to the Museum by Anonymous.
Thanks to Anonymous.
*****
These are the words of two
Environmental Protection Agency scientists in Scientific
American 1989. This is how to meet the requirements
of treaties on global warming, plant hemp for biomass and
use it as a resource in place of fossil fuels.
We have known this for ten years and have done little about
it.
This 1992 Lumina Variable
Fuel Vehicle runs on any mix of gasoline and alcohol that
you put in the tank. I don't know if they ever tried
straight vodka. Tens of thousands of these cars were
driven by the state and some utilities.
METHANOL (common name methyl
alcohol) CH30H is the simplest of the alcohols.
It can be made by the dry distillation of wood (hence it
is also known as wood alcohol), but it is usually made from
coal or natural gas.
When pure, methanol is a colorless, flammable
liquid with a pleasant odor, and is highly poisonous.
Methanol is used as a chemical feed stock. See
Hemp Chemical Feed Stocks Room.
By most accounts booze is
better burned in the car than in the body. And while
it may not be the only answer, it may be one of the answers
to future energy needs and can be made from hemp.
Ethanol, common name ethyl alcohol C2H5OH, is the alcohol
found in beer, wine, cider, spirits, and other alcoholic
drinks. When pure, it is a colorless liquid with a
pleasant odor, miscible with water or ether, and which burns
in air with a pale blue flame. The vapor forms an
explosive mixture with air and may be used in high-compression
internal combustion engines. It is produced naturally
by the fermentation of carbohydrates by yeast cells.
Industrially, it can be made by absorption of ethene and
subsequent reaction with water, or by the reduction of ethanol
in the presence of a catalyst, and is widely used as a
solvent.
Ethanol, which can also
be produced from hemp, is used as a raw material in the
manufacture of ether, chloral, and iodoform. It can
also be added to gasoline, where it improves the performance
of the engine, or be used as a fuel in its own right.
Crops such as sugar cane may also be grown to provide ethanol
(by fermentation) for this purpose.
But can't we just burn the hemp?
Yes and it is being done.
HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION
Richard M. Davis, USA Hemp Museum Founder & Curator
Most of the hemp products
made by the Curator started as cut-up small branches such
as are in the bottle second from the right. On the
right is rough blended pulp for boards. Left bottle contains
finer pulp for paper and pellet stoves. Second from
left bottle contains pulp from wood pellets for stoves.
Hemp Pellet For Energy
Click on the left photo to see a hemp pulp energy
pellet. This biomass champion, hemp, burns.
Hemp is capable of producing clean energy, key to
solving the problem of global warming.
Left bottle, and second from
left above, show how fine the pulp is for tree wood pellets
for stoves. Right are hand made pellets of the hemp
pulp in the middle bottle.
A small generator that can
be powered by the small steam engine below burning hemp
to supply the heat for steam. Hemp does produce electricity.
Steam power can be fueled
with hemp pellets.
If you would like to join the USA Hemp Museum
or communicate with the curator, send an
email to
