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Bioelectricity promises more 'miles per acre' than ethanol

Bioelectricity promises more 'miles per acre' than ethanol
May 8, 2009

Biofuels such as ethanol offer an alternative to petroleum for powering our cars, but growing energy crops to produce them can compete with food crops for farmland, and clearing forests to expand farmland will aggravate the climate change problem. How can we maximize our “miles per acre” from biomass? Researchers writing in the online edition of the May 7 Science magazine say the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity, rather than ethanol. They calculate that, compared to ethanol used for internal combustion engines, bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80% more miles of transportation per acre of crops, while also providing double the greenhouse gas offsets to mitigate climate change.

“It’s a relatively obvious question once you ask it, but nobody had really asked it before,” says study co-author Chris Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution. “The kinds of motivations that have driven people to think about developing ethanol as a vehicle fuel have been somewhat different from those that have been motivating people to think about battery electric vehicles, but the overlap is in the area of maximizing efficiency and minimizing adverse impacts on climate.”

Field, who is also a professor of biology at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, is part of a research team that includes lead author Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced, and David Lobell of Stanford’s Program on Food Security and the Environment. The researchers performed a life-cycle analysis of both bioelectricity and ethanol technologies, taking into account not only the energy produced by each technology, but also the energy consumed in producing the vehicles and fuels. For the analysis, they used publicly available data on vehicle efficiencies from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations.

Bioelectricity was the clear winner in the transportation-miles-per-acre comparison, regardless of whether the energy was produced from corn or from switchgrass, a cellulose-based energy crop. For example, a small SUV powered by bioelectricity could travel nearly 14,000 highway miles on the net energy produced from an acre of switchgrass, while a comparable internal combustion vehicle could only travel about 9,000 miles on the highway. (Average mileage for both city and highway driving would be 15,000 miles for a biolelectric SUV and 8,000 miles for an internal combustion vehicle.)

"The internal combustion engine just isn't very efficient, especially when compared to electric vehicles,” says Campbell. “Even the best ethanol-producing technologies with hybrid vehicles aren't enough to overcome this."

The researchers found that bioelectricity and ethanol also differed in their potential impact on climate change. “Some approaches to bioenergy can make climate change worse, but other limited approaches can help fight climate change,” says Campbell. “For these beneficial approaches, we could do more to fight climate change by making electricity than making ethanol.”

The energy from an acre of switchgrass used to power an electric vehicle would prevent or offset the release of up to 10 tons of CO2 per acre, relative to a similar-sized gasoline-powered car. Across vehicle types and different crops, this offset averages more than 100% larger for the bioelectricity than for the ethanol pathway. Bioelectricity also offers more possibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through measures such as carbon capture and sequestration, which could be implemented at biomass power stations but not individual internal combustion vehicles.

While the results of the study clearly favor bioelectricity over ethanol, the researchers caution that the issues facing society in choosing an energy strategy are complex. “We found that converting biomass to electricity rather than ethanol makes the most sense for two policy-relevant issues: transportation and climate,” says Lobell. “But we also need to compare these options for other issues like water consumption, air pollution, and economic costs.”

"There is a big strategic decision our country and others are making: whether to encourage development of vehicles that run on ethanol or electricity,” says Campbell. “Studies like ours could be used to ensure that the alternative energy pathways we chose will provide the most transportation energy and the least climate change impacts."

This research was funded through a grant from the Stanford University Global Climate and Energy Project, with additional support from the Stanford University Food Security and the Environment Program, The University of California at Merced, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and a NASA New Investigator Grant.

Original Release

Abstract

Audio Interview with Chris Field

Coverage at Scientific American

SOURCE: Carnegie Institution for Science

[Submitted by Hemp4Fuel]

Friday 08 May 2009 - 13:16:36 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Biofuels - Alcohol / Ethanol / Methanol | Comments: 7 |        

The Caitlin County Hemp Wars

Hemp, the musical? An original play, showing one night only, May 5, in Boston.

Background

Three generations of an extended farm family don’t always get along (“Family”). The farm is going under, and there is disagreement about how to keep it going. Shelly, a college student, wants to live her own life and loves Michael, Uncle Ray’s farm hand against the will of her parents ("Want to be me"). One night she has a dream which she shares with her grandmother Cora. Maybe her family can save the farm by growing Industrial Hemp? Cora shares Shelly’s ideas with her devoted husband Henry who serenades her with a song of eternal love (“Love is Forever”). Tom, Shelly’s brother and third generation of this extended farm family, expresses jealousies toward his sibling, antipathy towards Michael, and commiserates with his cousins about the plight of the farm (“Kids Know Best"”).

At Shelly’s Invitation, the grandparents attend a Hempfest where they listen to a local band (“Grass”) and learn about the useful applications of Industrial Hemp. After fighting with her parents, Shelly visits Michael who asks her to marry him ("Take a Stand"). At a family meeting, there is general agreement that because of their desperate situation they are willing to experiment with a Hemp crop. Shelly and Michael announce their engagement, and Michael is accepted into the fold. All is right with the world (“Peace Now”), except for Uncle Ray who thinks the family should sell the farm. Next morning, the family elders, in an east-meets-west experience, show Shelly’s Goth clad friends how to sow the Hemp ("Planting the Seeds" – a combination of Traditional and Rap music).

Ray, wanting “out” of the farm ("Caitlin County Blues"), exposes his family to the corporate executives who want to buy the farm for a considerable sum (“Compromised Individuals”). The family meets with some neighboring farmers who agree to help with the Harvesting of the crop (“Hangin’ Together”). They create a “crop-circle” to divert the Feds who in all likelihood will be snooping around (“Diversionary Tactics”). Cora creates her own diversion (“The Chase”) until they are all caught. At the Caitlin County Courthouse, the family is ably represented by their attorney ("Courtroom Cowboy"), and they get off with a light sentence. Ray leaves town, Shelly and Michael become husband and wife, and, in a rousing finale, the family and community realize the importance of being there for each other (“One People”).

The Caitlin County Hemp Wars Website

A couple of video samples on Vimeo
[Submitted by dlenef]

Friday 01 May 2009 - 21:12:36 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Misc | Comments: 5 |        

Researchers find weaknesses in a plant's cellulosic defense

http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000101&ISSUE=0904&RELTYPE=MS&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=DB&CommonCount=0

Researchers find weaknesses in a plant's cellulosic defense
April 23, 2009

Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have discovered a potential chink in the armor of fibers that make the cell walls of certain inedible plant materials so tough. The insight could lead to a cost-effective and energy-efficient strategy for turning biomass into alternative fuels.

In separate papers published in Biophysical Journal and Biomacromolecules, Los Alamos researchers identify potential weaknesses among sheets of cellulose molecules comprising lignocellulosic biomass, the inedible fibrous material derived from plant cell walls. The material is a potentially abundant source of sugar that can be used to brew batches of methanol or butanol, which show potential as biofuels.

Cellulose is biosynthesized in plant cells when molecules of glucose—a simple sugar—join into long chains through a process called polymerization. The plant then assembles these chains of cellulose into sheets. The sheets are held together by hydrogen bonds—an electrostatic attraction of a positive portion of a molecule to a negative portion of the same or neighboring molecule. Finally, the sheets stack atop one another, sticking to themselves by other types of attractions that are weaker than hydrogen bonds. The plant then spins these sheets into high-tensile-strength fibers of material.

Not only are the fibers incredibly strong, but they are incredibly resistant to the action of enzymes called cellulases that can crack the fibers back into their simple-sugar components. The ability to economically and easily break cellulose into sugars is desirable because the sugars can be used to create fuel alternatives. However, due to the tenacity of cellulose fibers, the United States currently lacks an energy-efficient and cost-effective method for turning inedible biomass such as switch grass or corn husks into a sweet source of biofuels.

Working with researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules Végétales in France, Los Alamos researcher Paul Langan used neutrons to probe the crystalline structure of highly crystalline cellulose, much like an x-ray is used to probe the hidden structures of the body. Langan and his colleagues found that although cellulose generally has a well-ordered network of hydrogen bonds holding it together, the material also displays significant amounts of disorder, creating a different type of hydrogen bond network at certain surfaces. These differences make the molecule potentially vulnerable to an attack by cellulase enzymes.

Moreover, in this month’s Biophysical Journal, Los Alamos researchers Tongye Shen and Gnana Gnanakaran describe a new lattice-based model of crystalline cellulose. The model predicts how hydrogen bonds in cellulose can shift to remain stable under a wide range of temperatures. This plasticity allows the material to swap different types of hydrogen bonds but also constrains the molecules so that they must form bonds in the weaker configuration described by Langan and his colleagues. Most important, Shen and Gnanakaran’s model identifies hydrogen bonds that can be manipulated via temperature differences to potentially make the material more susceptible to attack by enzymes that can crack the fibers into sugars for biofuel production.

“We have been able to identify a chink in the armor of a very tough and worthy adversary—the cellulose fiber,” said Gnanakaran, who leads the theoretical portion of a large, multidisciplinary biofuels project at Los Alamos.

“These results are some of the first to come from this team, and eventually could point us toward an economical and viable process for making biofuels from cellulosic biomass,” adds Langan, director of the biofuels project.

Original article

Study abstract for “The Stability of Cellulose: A Statistical Perspective from a Coarse-Grained Model of Hydrogen-Bond Networks”

SOURCE: Los Alamos National Laboratory



Thursday 23 April 2009 - 08:04:10 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Biofuels - Alcohol / Ethanol / Methanol | Comments: 4 |        

Hemp could be key to zero-carbon houses

08 April 2009 - University of Bath, UK

Hemp, a plant from the cannabis family, could be used to build carbon-neutral homes of the future to help combat climate change and boost the rural economy, say researchers at the University of Bath.

A consortium, led by the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials based at the University, has embarked on a unique housing project to develop the use of hemp-lime construction materials in the UK.

Hemp-lime is a lightweight composite building material made of fibres from the fast growing plant, bound together using a lime-based adhesive. The hemp plant stores carbon during its growth and this, combined with the low carbon footprint of lime and its very efficient insulating properties, gives the material a 'better than zero carbon' footprint.

Professor Pete Walker, Director of the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, explained: “We will be looking at the feasibility of using hemp-lime in place of traditional materials, so that they can be used widely in the building industry.

"We will be measuring the properties of lime-hemp materials, such as their strength and durability, as well as the energy efficiency of buildings made of these materials.

"Using renewable crops to make building materials makes real sense - it only takes an area the size of a rugby pitch four months to grow enough hemp to build a typical three bedroom house.

"Growing crops such as hemp can also provide economic and social benefits to rural economies through new agricultural markets for farmers and associated industries."

The three year project, worth almost £750,000, will collect vital scientific and engineering data about this new material so that it can be more widely used in the UK for building homes.

The project brings together a team of nine partners, comprising BRE Ltd, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studio architects, Hanson Cement, Hemcore, Lhoist UK, Lime Technology, National Non-Food Crops Centre, University of Bath and Wates Living Space. As part of the project the University of Bath received a research grant of £391,000 from the Renewable Materials LINK programme run by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/2009/04/08/hemp-houses/
[Submitted by dlenef]

Thursday 09 April 2009 - 12:57:10 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Misc | Comments: 4 |        

No algae were harmed during the making of this biofuel

No algae were harmed during the making of this biofuel

April 8, 2009

Algae is widely touted as the next best source for fueling the world's energy needs. But one of the greatest challenges in creating biofuels from algae is that when you extract the oil from the algae, it kills the organisms, dramatically raising production costs. Now researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University have developed groundbreaking "nanofarming" technology that safely harvests oil from the algae so the pond-based "crop" can keep on producing.

Researchers at the Ames Laboratory are growing several strains of algae to test nanofarming technology that uses sponge-like mesoporous nanoparticles to extract biofuel oils from the organisms.
(Credit: U.S. Dept. of Energy's Ames Laboratory)
Commercialization of this new technology is at the center of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the Ames Laboratory and Catilin, a nano-technology-based company that specializes in biofuel production. The agreement targets development of this novel approach to reduce the cost and energy consumption of the industrial processing of non-food source biofuel feedstock. The three-year project is being funded with $885,000 from DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and $216,000 from Catilin and $16,000 from Iowa State University in matching

funds.

The so-called "nanofarming" technology uses sponge-like mesoporous nanoparticles to extract oil from the algae. The process doesn't harm the algae like other methods being developed, which helps reduce both production costs and the production cycle. Once the algal oil is extracted, a separate and proven solid catalyst from Catilin will be used to produce ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN certified biodiesel.

The potential of algae for fuel is tremendous as up to 10,000 gallons of oil may be produced on a single acre of land. The DOE estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require only 15,000 square miles, which is a few thousand square miles larger than Maryland. This is less than one-seventh the area devoted to corn production in the United States in 2000.

The driving force behind this combination of nanotechnology and biofuels is Ames Laboratory Chemical and Biological Sciences Program Director Victor Lin. Since 2000, Lin, who is also a chemistry professor at Iowa State University, has been leading research on using nanotechnology to dramatically change the production process of biodiesel. This successful technology led Lin to found Catilin one and a half years ago.

This micrograph shows the sponge-like mesoporous nanoparticles developed by researchers at Ames Laboratory to harvest biofuel oils from algae without harming the organisms.
(Credit: U.S. Dept. of Energy's Ames Laboratory)
"By combining nanotechnology, chemistry and catalysis, we have been able to find solutions that have not been considered to date," Lin said. "Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University offer valuable research capabilities and resources that will play a key role in this exciting collaboration with Catilin."

According to Marek Pruski, Ames Laboratory senior physicist and co-investigator on the project, phase one and two of the project will cover the culturing and selection of microalgae as well as the development of the specific nanoparticle-based extraction and catalyst technologies for the removal of algal oil and the production of biodiesel, respectively. Phase three will focus on scale-up of the catalyst and pilot plant testing on conversion to biodiesel.

"When we ultimately put together this exceptional extraction technology with Catilin's existing solid biodiesel catalyst, we will dramatically increase the reality of renewable energy," said Catilin's CEO, Larry Lenhart. "Given the Obama administration's objectives, the timing is perfect."

Catilin, Inc.

SOURCE: DOE/Ames Laboratory


R&D Daily


http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000101&ISSUE=0904&RELTYPE=MS&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=SR&CommonCount=0
[Submitted by KEVswr]

Wednesday 08 April 2009 - 17:13:40 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Biofuels - Alcohol / Ethanol / Methanol | Comments: 7 |        

Renewable-energy investments drop globally

Renewable-energy investments drop globally
April 6, 2009

New global investment in renewable-energy projects fell 53 percent in the first quarter, an indication money from government stimulus packages has been slow to reach the industry, a report concluded Thursday.

The steep drop-off shows the global economy's continued deterioration despite a fresh emphasis on curbing pollution and promoting cleaner energy such as wind farms, solar parks and biofuels plants.

Without necessary financing, it has taken longer to finalize deals which could lead to industry consolidation, said Michael Liebreich, chairman and chief executive of New Energy Finance, an industry-research firm.

Other analysts are forecasting similar results for the quarter. "The economy in general, the capital markets overall have had a very difficult time of it," Ernst & Young clean-technology analyst Joseph Muscat said.

For the January-March quarter, new global investment in clean-energy projects totaled $13.3 billion compared with $28.3 billion in the year-ago quarter, according to an analysis by London-based New Energy.

Stock-market investors cut new investments in companies devoted solely to clean energy to about $100 million from $2.1 billion, the consulting firm found. Companies that offer clean energy as a part of their overall business did slightly better.

New venture capital and private-equity investment dropped to $1.8 billion from $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2008. Merger, acquisition, buy-out and refinancing - which is on top of new money - totaled $8.8 billion down from $18.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.

In the United States, asset financing for new projects was $500 million, compared with a little more than $5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

While renewable energy remains a small fraction of all power used, wind and solar are among the fastest growing in the U.S. In 2008, the U.S. became the world's leading provider of wind power.

"Given the slowness of the first quarter of 2009, it will take a very large acceleration in investment in the remaining three quarters for this year to match 2008 levels," Liebreich said.

The U.S. has pledged billions of dollars to help the renewable-energy industry as part of its overall economic stimulus package. Money is earmarked for such measures as upgrading the nation's electrical-distribution system, tax cuts to promote development of alternatives to oil and energy-efficient improvements for federal buildings and modest-income homes.

Muscat believes a recovery will begin later this year as the stimulus money begins to filter down.

"Over time that will lead to an overall sector improvement but I think as far as I can see it's really going to be a company specific situation," he said.

More coverage at the Wall Street Journal

SOURCE: The Associated Press

[Submitted by Hemp4Fuel]

Monday 06 April 2009 - 15:12:59 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Misc | Comments: 4 |        

Engineers reveal carbon-neutral methane production

[New inventions regarding energy and energy supply]

http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~014~ACCT~1400000101~ISSUE~0903~RELTYPE~MS~PRODCODE~00000000~PRODLETT~QB.html

Engineers reveal carbon-neutral methane production

March 30, 2009

A tiny microbe can take electricity and directly convert carbon dioxide and water to methane, producing a portable energy source with a potentially neutral carbon footprint, according to a team of Penn State engineers.

"We were studying making hydrogen in microbial electrolysis cells and we kept getting all this methane," said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering, Penn State. "We may now understand why."

This photo shows Bruce E. Logan, Shaoan Cheng and Defeng Xing with a microbial cell that produces methane directly from electricity. Credit: Bruce Logan's Lab, Penn State
Methanogenic microorganisms do produce methane in marshes and dumps, but scientists thought that the organisms turned hydrogen or organic materials, such as acetate, into methane. However, the researchers found, while trying to produce hydrogen in microbial electrolysis cells, that their cells produced much more methane than expected.

"All the methane generation going on in nature that we have assumed is going through hydrogen may not be," said Logan. "We actually find very little hydrogen in the gas phase in nature. Perhaps where we assumed hydrogen is being made, it is not."

Microbial electrolysis cells do require an electrical voltage to be added to the voltage that is produced by bacteria using organic materials to produce current that evolves into hydrogen. The researchers found that the Archaea, using about the same electrical input, could use the current to convert carbon dioxide and water to methane without any organic material, bacteria or hydrogen usually found in microbial electrolysis cells. They report their findings in this week's issue of Environmental Science and Technology.

"We have a microbe that is self perpetuating that can accept electrons directly, and use them to create methane," said Logan.

Logan, working with Shaoan Cheng, senior research associate; Defeng Xing, post doctoral researcher, and Douglas F. Call, graduate student, environmental engineering, confirmed that the microscopic organisms produced the methane. The researchers created a two-chambered cell with an anode immersed in water on one side of the chamber and a cathode in water, inorganic nutrients and carbon dioxide on the other side of the chamber. They applied a voltage, but recorded only a minute current. The researchers then coated the cathode with the biofilm of Archaea and not only did current flow in the circuit, but the cell produced methane.

"The only way to get current at the voltage we used was if the microbes were directly accepting electrons," said Logan. He notes that the electrochemical reaction takes place without any precious metal catalysts and at a lower energy level than converting carbon dioxide to methane using conventional, non-biological methods.

The cells are about 80% efficient in converting electricity to methane and because they use carbon dioxide as feed stock, would be carbon neutral if the electricity comes from a non-carbon source such as solar or wind power [or burning carbon neutral, unprocessed HEMP instead of coal!].

"The process does not sequester carbon, but it does turn carbon dioxide into fuel," said Logan. "If the methane is burned and carbon dioxide captured, then the process can be carbon neutral."

Logan suggests the method for off peak capture of renewable energy in a portable fuel. Methane is preferred over hydrogen because a large portion of the U.S. infrastructure is already set up to easily transport and deliver methane.

The National Science Foundation and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. supported this project.

Study abstract

SOURCE: Penn State



[Submitted by KEVswr]

Monday 30 March 2009 - 15:11:32 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Misc | Comments: 3 |        

Hemp Is Not Pot: It's the Economic Stimulus and Green Jobs Solution We Need

By Dara Colwell, AlterNet. Posted March 26, 2009.

We can make over 25,000 things with it. Farmers love it. Environmentalists love it. You can't get high from it. So why is it still illegal?

While Uncle Sam's scramble for new revenue sources has recently kicked up the marijuana debate -- to legalize and tax, or not? -- hemp's feasibility as a stimulus plan has received less airtime.

But with a North American market that exceeds $300 million in annual retail sales and continued rising demand, industrial hemp could generate thousands of sustainable new jobs, helping America to get back on track.

"We're in the midst of a dark economic transition, but I believe hemp is an important facet and has tremendous economic potential," says Patrick Goggin, a board member on the California Council for Vote Hemp, the nation's leading industrial hemp-farming advocacy group. "Economically and environmentally, industrial hemp is an important part of the sustainability pie."

With 25,000 known applications from paper, clothing and food products -- which, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this January, is the fastest growing new food category in North America -- to construction and automotive materials, hemp could be just the crop to jump-start America's green economy.

But growing hemp remains illegal in the U.S. The Drug Enforcement Administration has lumped the low-THC plant together with its psychoactive cousin, marijuana, making America the planet's only industrialized nation to ban hemp production. We can import it from Canada, which legalized it in 1997. But we can't grow it.

"It's a missed opportunity," says Goggin, who campaigned for California farmers to grow industrial hemp two years ago, although the bill was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, citing the measure conflicted with federal law.

Considering California's position as an agricultural giant -- agriculture nets $36.6 billion dollars a year, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture -- Goggin's assessment is an understatement. Especially if extended nationwide.

"Jobs require capital investment, which isn't easy to come by at the moment, and we need hemp-processing facilities, because the infrastructure here went to seed. But this is a profitable crop, and the California farming community supports it."

Just how profitable? According to Chris Conrad, a respected authority on cannabis and industrial hemp and who authored Hemp for Health and Hemp, Lifeline to the Future, the industry would be regionally sustainable, reviving the local economy wherever it was grown.

"Hemp will create jobs in some of the hardest-hit sectors of the country -- rural agriculture, equipment manufacturing, transportable processing equipment and crews -- and the products could serve and develop the same community where the hemp is farmed: building ecological new homes, producing value-added and finished products, marketing and so forth," he writes in an e-mail from Amsterdam, where he is doing research. "Add to that all the secondary jobs -- restaurants, health care, food products, community-support networks, schools, etc., that will serve the workers. The Midwestern U.S. and the more remote parts of California and other states would see a surge of income, growth, jobs and consumer goods."

In America, industrial hemp has long been associated with marijuana, although the plants are different breeds of Cannabis sativa, just as poodles and Irish setters are different breeds of dog.

While hemp contains minute levels of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana (compare 0.3 percent or less in Canadian industrial hemp versus 3-20 percent for medical marijuana), to get high you'd have to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole.

Still, the historical hysteria caused by federal anti-marijuana campaigns of the 1930s, which warned that marijuana caused insanity, lust, addiction, violence and crime, have had a long-term impact on its distant relative.

Doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which in effect criminalized cannabis and levied high taxes on medical marijuana and industrial hemp, hemp cultivation wasn't technically disallowed.

--- end of part one ---

Read the entire article here:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/133055/hemp_is_not_pot:_it%27s_the_economic_stimulus_and_green_jobs_solution_we_need/
[Submitted by dlenef]

Thursday 26 March 2009 - 01:32:22 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Misc | Comments: 3 |        

Hemp Fiber/Fuel Stanford University

Pub date: 3/19/2009

http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~014~ACCT~1400000101~ISSUE~0903~RELTYPE~MS~PRODCODE~00000000~PRODLETT~KE.html

Biodegradable composites may obsolete wood and plastic


March 19, 2009

Stanford University researchers have developed a synthetic wood substitute that may one day save trees, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and shrink landfills.

The faux lumber is made from a new biodegradable plastic that could be used in a variety of building materials and perhaps replace the petrochemical plastics now used in billions of disposable water bottles.

"This is a great opportunity to make products that serve a societal need and respect and protect the natural environment," said lead researcher Sarah Billington, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

In 2004, Billington and her colleagues received a two-year Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) grant from Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment to develop artificial wood that is both durable and recyclable. The research team focused on a new class of construction material called biodegradable composites, or "biocomposites"-glue-like resins reinforced with natural fibers that are made from plants and recyclable polymers.

Billington's group began by testing a number of promising materials. The best turned out to be natural hemp fibers fused with a biodegradable plastic resin called polyhydroxy-butyrate (PHB). "It's quite attractive looking and very strong," said EVP collaborator Craig Criddle, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "You can mold it, nail it, hammer it, drill it, a lot like wood. But bioplastic PHB can be produced faster than wood, and hemp can be grown faster than trees."

The hemp-PHB biocomposites are stable enough to use in furniture, floors and a variety of other building materials, he added. To degrade, it must be kept away from air-e.g., buried in a landfill-because its decomposition depends on microorganisms that live in anaerobic environments.

"The ideal is to have nice, stable material when it's being used," Criddle explained. "But when it's out of use, it goes to a landfill, degrades quickly, and is reprocessed into new material that stays in a nice, stable form."

Recycling methane

Unlike wood scraps that can sit in landfills for months or years, hemp-PHB biocomposites decompose a few weeks after burial. As they degrade, they release methane gas that can be captured and burned for energy recovery or re-used to make more biocomposites.

"It dawned on us that there are microbes that can make PHB from methane," Criddle said. "So now we're combining two natural processes: We're using microbes that break down PHB plastics and release methane gas, and different organisms that consume methane and produce PHB as a byproduct."

It's the ultimate in recycling, he said: "In our lab, we create conditions where only those organisms that accumulate the most plastic can reproduce. We call the process 'survival of the fattest,' and we have a patent application for it."

Capturing methane has the added benefit of combating climate change, Criddle said, noting that methane gas from landfills and other sources is a powerful global warming agent, 22 times more potent than carbon dioxide gas.

One reason that biodegradable plastics aren't widely used is cost. "We're competing with polypropylene and polyethylene, two really cheap petrochemical products," Criddle said. "Most bioplastics are made using sugar from corn and other relatively expensive materials. But our process uses methane in the biogas from landfills and wastewater treatment plants, which is essentially free."

The potential of producing low-cost, recyclable biocomposites has caught the attention of the private sector. In the next few months, the researchers expect to form a new startup company with venture capital funding.

Biodegradable bottles

Interest in the hemp-PHB biocomposites has moved beyond artificial wood products. In 2008, the research team was awarded a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the California Environmental Protection Agency to develop biodegradable plastics to replace the petrochemical plastics that are used to make disposable water and soda bottles. According to Cal/EPA, plastic bottles accumulate in landfills, the open ocean and coastal areas, causing major problems for birds, mammals and other marine life. "The goal of the state is to protect the environment and promote the development of a new industry that can produce low-cost bioplastics," Criddle said. "We have quite a team of students working on it. We're also collaborating with Curtis Frank, a professor of chemical engineering and a polymer plastics expert."

In 2008, Billington and Frank were awarded a grant from Stanford's Precourt Energy Efficiency Center to develop biodegradable foam for structural insulated panels. They also received new funding from the Woods Institute to explore the feasibility of using Criddle's polymers to manufacture "green glues" that make air quality in buildings less toxic. Lynn Hildemann, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is collaborating on that project.

"We started with biocomposites, and now we're doing bioplastics and thinking about things that affect global warming," Criddle said.

"It's really exciting to watch how the research has branched out into so many areas, from biocomposites to new bioplastics, green glues and foam," Billington added. "The opportunity to collaborate with people of different expertise has been wonderful and very invigorating."



SOURCE: Stanford University


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[Submitted by Whitefeather]

Thursday 19 March 2009 - 15:06:00 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Hemp for Fuel | Comments: 3 |        

Renewed Interest in Industrial Hemp is Smoking Hot!

From BioBased News, March 19 2009, By Barney DuBois



The bookies aren’t quoting “high” odds in Vegas – yet – but thousands of America’s farmers and processors are upbeat and restlessly hopeful this month after a recent ruling by the Obama White House to suspend raids on medical marijuana facilities by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). No, our farmers aren’t chomping to grow weed! But they won’t wait long to ramp up cultivation of industrial hemp – stymied in the U.S. since the federal war against “reefer madness” a half-century ago – when the DEA ever gives a similar go-ahead.

Photo courtesy Purdue University

Although it technically is not “illegal” to grow industrial hemp, a DEA permit is required to do so, and none has ever been granted. The result is that over 30 industrial nations (among them Canada, France, England, Germany and China) now grow and process hemp for export to the U.S., which remains the largest market – consumer and industrial – for raw hemp on earth.

And for good reason! The growth and use of hemp is as important to American history as, well, the Declaration of Independence – which was written on hemp paper. Or Levi’s jeans, originally made with hemp fiber. Or from the very beginning, say the Jamestown or Plymouth Rock colonies, where it was illegal NOT to grow hemp!

Pressure to re-legalize the growth of industrial hemp in America has been swelling for at least a decade. Eight states – Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia – already have removed the barriers to production and research on hemp. Many of these, plus several others – including Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, California, South Carolina, and Wisconsin – have new legislation pending this spring that would push further the drive to full production. At least 28 states have had or plan to have some legislative action. You can track most of these efforts at http://www.votehemp.com.

Some of the newest legislation – in North Dakota for example – goes so far as to provide state licenses to hemp growers and to petition the DEA to back off and to allow the regulation of hemp under state law – as opposed to federal police action! This provincial revolt is echoed by farmers in other states – notably Vermont, Minnesota and Kentucky – who in recent weeks have swarmed local and state meeting halls with a sense that change at last is in the air.

If enough farm states join the already healthy industrial hemp lobby in Washington, change might be possible for the first time in 50 years. The result so far, however, is that nobody can yet grow hemp for commercial use, and the country remains culturally blinded to the difference between it and marijuana.

Both plants are classified as cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties. The two look somewhat alike to the untrained eye, and it is actually possible for them to cross-pollinate, but they have evolved on totally separate paths for the last 12,000 years and can be differentiated easily by the trained eye – or on-the-spot testing.

Hemp – one of the first crops domesticated by man – is many times larger and is bred for fiber, seed and oil. Marijuana is smaller and bred solely to maximize the enzyme THC, which is present in hemp only in microscopic quantities. A hippie would have to smoke an entire field to maybe even get a little buzz!

The arguments for allowing industrial hemp cultivation under state supervision are becoming larger every year – from many perspectives. For one thing, the crop is hearty and can be grown in just about any soil or weather condition. For another, hemp is biologically superior to almost any other crop – including soybeans (which produce less digestible protein than hemp) and corn (which produces less biofuel energy per acre than hemp). The potential economic impact goes without saying.

Even more importantly, hemp is among the fastest-growing biomasses, 100% usable, and renewable in an almost limitless number of applications. At least 25,000 products can be made from hemp, including many that now rely on petrochemicals. And, the fact that hemp has been omitted entirely from the incredible advances by U.S. agri-science for the past half-century makes its future appear virtually limitless to some in the industry.

Stay tuned. With the current economic meltdown and obvious political shift to support renewable, sustainable resources, hemp seems like a no-brainer.

But don’t get your seeds out of storage, yet. You could still get busted!
[Submitted by dlenef]

Thursday 19 March 2009 - 01:12:53 by Hemp4Fuel
Posted in Hemp for Fuel | Comments: 5 |        

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