Hemp as a Fuel Source

Hemp, in all its versatility, can be used to create an effective bio-diesel that is a viable and safe replacement for petroleum diesel. So why is it not more main stream then if it is such a good alternative? To put it simply, big oil companies do not want you too, they would lose their multi-billion dollar industry.

It is a little known fact, but both Henry Ford and Rudolf Diesel, the creator of the Ford Motor Company and the inventor of the diesel engine, never intended cars to run on today’s gasoline – they knew that hemp was the future.

Henry Ford's first Model-T car was built to run on hemp gasoline, in fact, the car itself was made of hemp plastic panels, a substance that is biodegradable and has an impact strength 10 times stronger than steel. Henry ford was quite famously photographed amongst his hemp fields, advocating the car that was “grown from soil”.

When Rudolf Diesel designed the diesel engine, he did it with vegetable and seed oil, (such as hemp seed oil), in mind as the fuel source. Did you know that he actually ran one of his first engines at the 1900 World's Fair on peanut oil?

Back then it was a general consensus within the motoring industry that hemp diesel and the fermentation of vegetables would be the future mainstream source of fuel. Henry Ford famously told a reporter at the New York Times "There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years." So why did this never happen? Once again, it comes down to big corporation and oil barons wanting to monopolize the market – partly why hemp and cannabis was put under prohibition in the first place.

Just think about it, if governments were willing to make the transition to bio-diesels made from hemp, practically every country on the planted could become self sufficient without having to rely on foreign “Big Oil” companies to dictate their economies. Power would be put back into the hands of the agricultural industry and the people.

Here are just a few advantages of hemp made bio-diesel:

• Hemp grows vigorously and will thrive in countries around the world, there would be no shortage if it was made legal.
• Growing hemp and turning it into a fuel has a significantly smaller environmental impact than producing oil.
• Hemp fuels are biodegradable, so oil spills would no longer be a significant environmental problem.
• Hemp fuel does not produce the toxic sulfur dioxide that traditional fuels do.
• Hemp fuel is non toxic
• Hemp fuel produces a minimal amount of carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons in comparison to normal fuels.
• The ease with which hemp can be grown and turned into a fuel would put a lot of power back into the hands of the people.
• Bio-diesel can extend the life of diesel engines
• It is road tested, with over 30 million road miles in the US and 20 years of use in Europe.
• You can make it at home.