Can hemp be used as fuel for autos and trucks instead of corn which has caused high prices for consumers?

Question

Can hemp be used as fuel for autos and trucks instead of corn which has caused high prices for consumers?

Answer 1

yes

The best is sugar beets. I have no idea why they are using corn.

Answer 2

yes it can

Answer 3

I've read quite a bit of scientific literature about biomass crops, and never seen hemp seriously advocated. The idea of using hemp seems to be propagated mostly by people who have other motives for legalization...

Yes, hemp can produce a lot of biomass, but not all biomass is the same. My guess is that the same properties that made hemp great for making ropes for sailing ships, also make it terrible for conversion to ethanol. The hard part of cellulosic ethanol is breaking down the plant matter (cellulose) into sugars that can be fermented. Closely packed, dense fibers are harder to break down.

Sugarcane is great for tropical regions, but doesn't grow well anywhere in th US (although there is some heavily subsidized acreage in Louisiana, and maybe FL). Also, current sugarcane ethanol only uses the sugars, and so it isn't really a "cellulosic" process. The much better choices for cellulosic ethanol in temperate climates are switchgrass and miscanthus. Both are low-input perennial crops which can serve as wildlife habitat. Switchgrass is even a native plant in much of the US.

edit: Sugar Beets have been used to produce ethanol in Eurpope, but aren't reasonable to use for large-scale energy production. They are a "energy intensive" relative to grasses, meaning they require more inputs to grow (though maybe not as bad as corn). This is because they are annual crops that need to be re-planted every year, and because digging them out of the ground takes more energy than harvesting (e.g.) a grass.

Answer 4

You can make ethanol from hemp or just about any bio product.  The issue is how much can you make for the amount of energy it takes to make it.  In this country we grow a lot of corn which has a high content of fructose.  Which we can turn into ethanol.  In Brazil they use sugar which is even better.

The real problem with using hemp is the belief that it would make it easier to grow recreational marijuana right next to the industrial hemp.

Answer 5

Actually hemp would be a great source of plant matter for the production of cellulosic ethanol when cellulosic ethanol becomes a more affordable and viable option.

It's extremely high energy density and the fact that it can grow just about anywhere make it an ideal energy crop.  

The only problem is it's illegal to grow it in many places because many people don't understand the difference between hemp and marijuana.  The funny thing about this is that hemp used to be a major cash crop in the Americas because it can be used for a wide variety of tasks, many of which would still be useful today.  This all changed when it was branded as an illegal drug.