Why is it that "oil wars" need to be fought, economic hardships need to be endured by corporate and private citizens and entire planet be held hostage by the oil cartels? A viable, verifiable and renewable fuel source already exists! Biofuels, specifically fuel made from the hemp plant can be the solution to our energy crisis.

It would only take six percent of the United States land to make the United States Energy Independent! By growing hemp, The U.S. would be able to produce enough fuel -- economically feasible fuel -- to simply say "Adios O.P.E.C." once and for all. The United States could pull out their troops from Iraq and allow God/Allah to sort out the mess there while Americans can rejoice at sane fuel prices once again. Best of all, this is not a pipedream!

Henry Ford himself not only built automobiles that ran on hemp fuel but he actually used hemp to build a car! Rudolf Diesel, another pioneer in the design of engines, design and built diesel engines that could be run on hemp fuel. The solution to our fuel shortage problems is here NOW. The technology is here NOW! Isn't it time we started growing hemp and declared fuel independence?

And you think the oil companies dont know this and arent a player in why hemp is not the world's #1 cash crop.

of course I know it. Henry Ford himself was not a big fan of gasoline. Unfortunately, Rockefeller......Standard Oil......convinced Ford to abort his plan for renewable biofuels in favor of oil. This alone makes it obvious that the oil companies knew "from the start" that hemp and other bio fuels were a threat to their industry. Besides, in the twenties, bio fuels weren't entirely feasible. The technology to utilize hemp didn't exist then to the extent that it does now. But if ever there was a time to start it's NOW.

The oil companies are insane. They could very easily continue to make high profts even if hemp fuel became an alternative to the gasoline monopoly. All they'd have to do is ensure that they were the ones investing in the land, the seeds, and the manufacturing processes involved in making hemp fuel. It would be a little like a company "branching out" into alternative markets. I don't understand why one of the big petroleum producers don't do this. How hard would it be and would the stockholders lose any of their precious record profits from these record prices? If a major producer or a few of them came out with a big campaign to legalize hemp and begin making the infrastructure changes necessary for widespread hemp-oil use, it would a major step forward. They would literally be "coming to the rescue". Finally, a major industry does something FOR the people rather than simply exploiting everything they touch.

HEMP IS THE CURE. It's uses are limitless. It is a true panacea for all of the energy problems that ail the world. And many other problems besides merely cheap energy.

There must be things we don't know about that prevent the petroleum companies from making use of hemp and eliminating our dependence on oil. Or, they're simply unwilling to offer us alternatives because of greed, rapaciousness, and the usual reasons that have to do with oil being where the BIG money is at, while a hemp-oil industry wouldn't make the CEO's and wealthy stockholders quite enough billions of dollars.

Sugarcane is the best crop to turn into Biofuel not Hemp at least that's what I read the other month. Cannot find the article anymore though...

There is a problem with sugar cane, like rice when growing it produces methane, a strong greenhouse gas. Hemp is actually good for the soil it grows on without any nasty by-products.

IMO our society has been essentially brainwashed by those with all the money. Hemp/ marijuana is evil; we must have cars and electricity to be happy; your computer is outdated time to buy a new one, ect.... It is like they program people to buy all they can and then some and live a lifesyle that is constantly forces one to buy or die.

*rubs chin* I suppose you have an idea as to how to get rid of these fossil fuel burning plants that produce electricity with hemp plants do ya? Anyway to make plastics from synthetics or hemp? Maybe these hemp engines could power ocean going freighters, battleships, carriers, diesel trucks, large earth movers, tanks, etc...

These defininetly seem like hippie pipe dreams, but I can't imagine as to how hemp fueled cars of Henry Ford's day were any better than his fossil fuelers.

Biodiesel is being used a bit where I live.

They are running buses in Regina on the stuff, a mixture, not pure, so its pretty much the same price as regular fuel.

Its based on Canola, something we grow in massive amounts here, and cant sell worth a crap.

Isnt that ironic? Im not sure what canola is worth now, anywhere from 5.50 / high 6 a bushel.

It will be a player in the future.

You can easily convert say a diesil vw to run off of fry oil

Ive seen it done. The beauty is, comapnies PAY to get rid of the old oil.

Free gas.

benevolent tyrant i can only assume you pulled the 6% figure out of thin air as the figures have been done on this a thousand times and they have even been done by companies other then oil companies. In order to produce enough vegetable oil to compensate for the current oil usage you would need an area about the size of south America, and i dont mean a few farms i mean the continent itself.

Although hemp oil does work so do several other oils that are natural and replenish themselves but again you run into the whole who has to give up their continent for us to grow it scenario. Then you have the whole what to do with the current gas engines as they will not run on hemp or vegetable oil. Diesels have no problems running on vegetable oil but in case you hadnt noticed there arent to many diesels on the road in the US. ( compared to gas engines ) Truth be known diesels will run on damn near anything given the amount of compression they have and thats why they were designed in the first place. The only real conversion needed to run straight bio diesel in a vehicle right off the production floor is a fuel heating system, this prevents the bio diesel from gelling back up ( as grease will do ). In WWII European farmers converted there old tractors to even run on smoke ( yes i said smoke ) its called wood gasification and it consists of very little more then a trash can filled with firewood and the smoke being directed into the compression chambers. There are tons of alternatives to fossil based fuels but each one of them has drawbacks. If you want more info on how to make bio diesel just type in bio diesel dr pepper method in google and you can make it at home. On a side note several US cities use bio diesel for their mass transit system the city i work in is included as they use boidiesel in their city buses.

Gas engines will run on straight ethanol which is made from corn ( engine might get scorching hot though ) but again we cant grow enough corn to fill the current need for fuel. Also the process in making ethanol takes so much energy that it too isn't feasible.

Battery operated cars have some serious drawbacks as well , what are you going to do with the old batteries? theres some pretty toxic stuff in those batteries and its going to have to go someplace.

Now if you could come up with a plant that produces hydrogen during the photosynthesis process then you might have solved the fuel crisis problems until then everything stays the same.......... Im taking my mother earth newsletter and moving on


How about this for an idea flour when atomized and ignited will explode just like gas. So if you build a flour carburetor then in essence you have the true flour power car, hehe ( im kidding )

[edit on 8/16/2005 by benevolent tyrant]

actually your are wrong on thing bout corn it produces more energy than is used to make it plus the residue from the corn/sugar cane powers the plant that produces the ethanol so its a win win situation with corn/ethanol.

Here in Brazil we have a federal law that includes 18-20% Ethanol blend in our common gasoline.
The source for our ethanol is sugar cane, that we produce in large scale.
The ethanol in the fuel makes the price lower about 10 cents per liter and makes the octan level higher without lead or other additives.

The production costs and overall efficiency of the production is one of the best avaliable.

If Methanol was less toxic to the enviroment it could be a good source, because of its easy production. [ Oil + H2O + heat ------> Methanol ]

Any extra fuel propositions?

Originally posted by mikem2939
actually your are wrong on thing bout corn it produces more energy than is used to make it plus the residue from the corn/sugar cane powers the plant that produces the ethanol so its a win win situation with corn/ethanol.

If you're a farmer yes. If you're just growing the corn for Biodiesel no. It's all in the economics of scale. Methane might be a good source of fuel, it's way more potent then C02 so burning the stuff should "theoretically" take some of the greenhouse potency out of the gas(i think not sure about that one, heard it on TV not really sure wether I believe it or not)

[edit on 20-8-2005 by sardion2000]

Once we get to horse and buggy we can sit discussing the merits and demerits of any alternatives we choose.

I, for one, hope we don't wait that long to approach the inevitable. Alternative energy sources do exist, have existed, and will exist. Where none of them will satiisfy all the requirements of every person, the obvious truth is we must begin utilizing some of them.

Now more then ever people need to be made aware of the feasibillity of using hemp for fuel. If 6% of the total land mass of north america was used for producing hemp for automotive fuels we would be swimming in it, we would have more then enough to supply ourselfs PLUS we would have a new multi million (or billion) dollar export.

• Hemp grows like mad from border to border in America; so shortages are unlikely. And, unlike petrol, unless we run out of soil, hemp is renewable.

• Growing and harvesting the stuff has much less environmental impact than procuring oil.

• Hemp fuel is biodegradable; so oil spills become fertilizer not eco-catastrophes.

• Hemp fuel does not contribute to sulfur dioxide air poisoning.

• Other noxious emissions like carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are radically slashed by using “biodiesel.”

• Hemp fuel is nontoxic and only a mild skin irritant; anybody who’s ever cleaned out an old carburetor with gasoline can confirm the same is not true for petrol.

• Growing hemp for fuel would be a tremendous boon for American farmers and the agricultural industry, as opposed to people like, say, the Bush family.