1) We can stop cutting down forests for paper products and use hemp to make paper
There are four characteristics of hemp which make it particularly appealing for making paper:
☮Hemp
fibres are long (makes for stronger paper which can be recycled more
times than wood paper);
☮Hemp
contains high levels of cellulose (57-77%) and
more cellulose makes for more pulp;
☮Hemp
has low (3%) lignin content (this is what makes wood-pulp paper turn
yellow over time);
☮One
acre of hemp can produce as much usable fibre as four acres of
trees. Hemp can be harvested every 100 days. Trees take decades
to harvest.
The
best part about hemp-based paper is that its production is
environmentally friendly. Wood paper? Not so much …
Due
to its chemical
and physical composition, hemp can produce high pulp yields and can
be pulped without use of the Kraft process (chemical pulping
of wood and long-fibre speciality papers) which uses sulphur
compounds that are environmentally toxic. Also, as with other
non-wood pulp, hemp can be bleached with peroxide and through other
processes that do not involve chlorine.
2) We
can build stronger homes with it, use less lumber and create carbon
neutral structures
Hemp
has some fascinating qualities for a natural fibre. One of the
building products made from hemp is called Hempcrete.
It’s a good acoustic dampener, it breathes (doesn’t trap
vapours and humidity) and is a good insulator. And while it doesn’t
have great potential as a structural (load-bearing) material on it’s
own, it does have exciting possibilities as insulation that strengthens the existing structure. Hempcrete infill can
increase, up to 4 times, the strength of a timber wall by preventing
weak axis buckling by acting as continuous lateral elastic support.
With
Hempcrete, construction costs are reduced by: shallower
foundations; 30-40% less lumber, labour in framing; lower
transport costs of materials to site; lower finish costs; discounted
insurance costs; reduced mechanical (HVAC) requirements; NO
termite fumigation needed after build
Another
product, called Cannabric,
can be used as a load bearing material for buildings of multiple
floors. It provides much of the same acoustic, insulating and
breathing benefits of Hempcrete, but it can also replace nearly all
of the lumber or steel support used in typical construction.
The
mineral components of the Cannabric are
responsible for its mechanical hardness, its density and its
excellent thermal inertia. The result is a brick of low thermal
conductivity (0,1875 W/m·K) and high specific thermal capacity (1291
kJ/m3·K); it possesses thermo-physical characteristics to protect
against both cold and hot climates. All this with one-layer walls of
small thickness, without additional thermal insulation.
Another
fascinating benefit of almost every hemp-based building material is
that they are carbon negative. No, not carbon neutral, but carbon
negative. In other words, hemp absorbs so much carbon from the
atmosphere while it is growing that even the gas-powered machines
used to harvest it, to manufacture it and to transport it do not
equal as much carbon as it has already absorbed. Cannabric has a
GWP (Global Warming Potential) of -0.624 kg CO2 eq/kg, that means
negative. It is a material that retains CO2. In its manufacturing
processes (materials, transport, used energy) it does not contribute
to global warming.
3)
We can fuel our cars with hemp 'gasoline' (petrol) and bio-diesel and
stop burning fossil fuels
We’ve
all heard of bio-diesel, and any vegetable oil can be made into
bio-diesel. What’s really a game-changer is hemp can be used to
make 'green
gasoline',
almost identical to the stuff we currently put into our
combustion engine vehicles, but derived completely from cellulose.
In 2008, US researchers made a breakthrough in the development of
green gasoline, a liquid identical to standard gasoline, created
from sustainable biomass sources. Chemical
Engineer George
Huber of
the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate
students announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose
into gasoline components. "Green gasoline is an attractive
alternative to bio-ethanol since it can be used in existing engines
and does not incur the 30% gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex
fuel. In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol,
giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to
produce. Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or
poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural
residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the life-cycle
greenhouse gas problem that has surfaced with corn ethanol
and soy bio-diesel", said John Regalbuto at the US National Science
Foundation (NSF) who supported this research.
"Huber's
... process for the direct
conversion of cellulose to gasoline aromatics
is at the leading edge of the new ‘Green Gasoline' alternate energy
paradigm that NSF, along with other federal agencies, is helping to
promote. Not only is the method a compact way to treat a great deal
of biomass in a short time, the process, in principle, does not
require any external energy. In fact, from the extra heat that will
be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the
bio-fuel. There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the
process; by recovering heat and generating electricity, there won't
be any footprint."
And
it turns out, hemp is the best plant in the world to produce biomass
for cellulosic gasoline. According to the paper Energy
Farming in America,
"Hemp is the world’s most versatile plant. It can yield 10
tons per acre in four months. Hemp contains 80% cellulose; wood
produces 60% cellulose. Hemp is drought resistant making it an ideal
crop in the dry western regions of the country".
Once
this technology has evolved sufficiently to be cost effective on a
large scale, it will confirm that hemp, Cannabis sativa, is a
superior cultivar for bio-fuel production. Hemp exhibits far superior
ethanol yields per unit biomass compared to corn or switchgrass which
are the two most supported cultivars for bio-fuel by the US
government.
Industrial
hemp on a large scale is not a crop considered viable in Australia by
the Australian government.
If
the production of cellulosic gasoline (supplied by hemp) ramps up to
the point that most vehicles can be fuelled with it, simply using
cellulosic gasoline will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 85%
compared to reformulated petrol or ethanol.
4)
We can start to solve world hunger with the complete proteins and
amino acids of hemp seeds
Hemp
is cheap to grow, and it grows almost everywhere. So we could grow a
whole lot of it for very little. And while we're using all that
cellulose from hemp’s biomass to make gasoline (petrol) and clothes
and better materials for our homes, we could be using the seeds for
food.
Technically a nut, hemp seed typically contains over 30% oil and about 25% protein, with considerable amounts of dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. Hemp seed oil is over 80% polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and an exceptionally rich source of the two essential fatty acids (EFAs) linolenic acid (18:2 omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (18:3 omega-3). The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (n6/n3) in hemp seed oil is normally between 2:1 and 3:1, which is considered to be optimal for human health. In addition, the biological metabolites of the two EFAs, gamma-linolenic acid (18:3 omega-6; ‘GLA’) and stearidonic acid (18:4 omega-3; ‘SDA’), are also present in hemp seed oil. The two main proteins in hemp seed are edestin and albumin. Both of these high-quality storage proteins are easily digested and contain nutritionally significant amounts of all essential amino acids. In addition, hemp seed has exceptionally high levels of the amino acid arginine. Hemp seed has been used to treat various disorders for thousands of years in traditional oriental medicine. Recent clinical trials have identified hemp seed oil as a functional food and animal feeding studies demonstrate the long-standing utility of hemp seed as an important food resource.
What
could be accomplished if hemp were being grown in large quantities
all over the world for fuel, for clothing, for paper and so on? How
many could we feed with all those hemp seeds?
5)
We can make clothing and fabrics with a fraction of the environmental
impact and water consumption of cotton
For
millennia, humankind has made clothing from hemp’s long, strong
fibres. Turning to hemp as a source of textile fabric would actually
be a re-turning to hemp. The environmental impact of increased
hemp production over cotton would be tremendously positive. Cotton
requires more water, more fertilisers, more herbicides and more
pesticides to grow.
Hemp
represents the lowest ecological footprint of the three textiles. The
footprint of hemp does not vary significantly in the different case
studies, starting at 1.46 g/ha and reaching 2.01 g/ha. As with
cotton, crop cultivation represents the greatest proportion of the
ecological footprint in the hemp case studies. Again, this can be
attributed to the land area required to grow the crop. However,
unlike cotton, hemp productivity
levels are much greater with yields of up to 3 tonnes of dry fibre
per hectare compared to 1.35 tonnes of cotton lint per hectare.
When
it comes to water needs, cotton loses by a landslide to hemp. It
takes just over 4,474 litres (1,182 gallons) of water to
produce 0.45 kg (1 lb) of usable cotton. It takes
over 961 litres (254 gallons) of water to produce 0.45 kg (1 lb)
of usable hemp fibre.
6)
We can reverse / negate the effects of carbon emissions on global
warming
Through carbon
bio-sequestration,
a process of capturing carbon emissions from the atmosphere through
plants, we can trap or, 'sequester', carbon from the air into plants.
Once the plants are harvested we can then create a substance
called biochar,
not through burning the plants, but slow-smouldering them to create a
form of charcoal, which we then mix with nutrients and bury back into
the soil.
The
ancient tribes of the Amazon had this process figured out a long time
ago. There’s a particular type of soil made from this active human
interaction called 'terra preta' and it’s spectacular stuff.
Compared with the surrounding soil, terra
preta can
contain three times as much phosphorus and nitrogen.
Leaving
aside the subtleties of how char particles improve fertility, the
sheer amount of carbon they can stash away is phenomenal. In
1992, Sombroek published his first work on the potential of terra
preta as a tool for carbon sequestration. According to Glaser’s
research, a hectare of metre-deep terra preta can contain 250 tonnes
of carbon, as opposed to 100 tonnes in unimproved soils from similar
parent material. The extra carbon is not just in the char — it’s
also in the organic carbon and enhanced bacterial biomass that the
char sustains.
But
what does hemp have to do with this? Hemp is one of the highest
yielding biomass crops on the planet, and it takes far less water and
fertiliser to grow than other high-yielding biomass plants. Seen as a
carbon sequester, hemp might give as much as 13 tonnes of charcoal
per hectare annually, which would outdo salix plantations (a popular
biomass crop) by about three times.
7)
We can stop using as much toxic herbicide and pesticide and restore
our soils
Hemp
has been on earth for a long, long time, and for millennia,
our ancestral
farmers grew it everywhere and
knew how to take full advantage of it. One of its main benefits was
in crop rotation. Until hemp became illegal to cultivate in the early
twentieth century, farmers regularly planted hemp as a part of their
crop rotation. Why? Because it naturally restored the fields for use
by other crops through numerous mechanisms:
☮restores
vital nutrients into the soil.☮removes
chemicals from the soil (phyto-remediation)
☮naturally
killed off invasive plant species (weeds) without the use of chemical
herbicides.
☮relatively
pest-resistant, so entire hemp crops didn’t need to use pesticides,
allowing the field’s soil to be chemical free for the next crop’s
planting.
Hemp absorbs
CO2 and converts carbon dioxide into oxygen and improves the soil in
which it is grown. Sometimes used as a 'mop crop' and planted on some
farms to restore the soil’s nutrients during agricultural crop
rotation, hemp has the phyto-remediation potential to remove toxins
in the soil. Hemp offers real environmental advantages,
particularly with regard to the limited need for herbicides and
pesticides. Hemp is pre-adapted to organic agriculture and
accordingly, to the growing market for products associated with
environmentally-friendly sustainable production.
8)
We can reclaim land destroyed by pollution, radiation, and toxic
wastes
Hemp
is a member of an elite class of hearty plants that can naturally
extract and filter toxins and pollutants from some of the worst
disasters in the world, even radioactive soils. This is a process of
soil recovery known as phyto-remediation. Why use hemp as a
phyto-remediator?
☮high
biomass which is unaffected by pollutants
☮root
can grow up to 2.5 metres (8 feet) below ground
☮low
growing cost
☮quick
growing season
☮full
maturation in 180 days
☮good
accumulator from air and soil
Contaminated
products can be used for industrial purposes: Bio-diesel fuels,
industrial lubricants and varnishes, insulation, construction
materials, paper, clothing, food and plasticised or composited
materials for a variety of uses.
A
number of studies have identified industrial hemp as a top candidate
in bio-remediation, especially phyto-extraction of heavy metals from
industrially contaminated soils. Hemp has been used to process
grey-water in Australia, extensively tested in Europe for the removal
of heavy metals from soil, including cadmium, lead, copper, zinc, and
nickel often associated with mining, used for the clean-up of
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at a site in Hawaii and cultivated
on radionuclide-contaminated soils at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor
site.
9)
We can power coal-powered plants with much lower sulphur pollution
(or even none)
Coal.
A dirty word for many. A cheap source of electrical power for most.
And one of the most devastating sources of pollution in the modern
world. But we can cut emissions from coal plants by simply adding
hemp biomass to the coal being burned. By blending coal with
biomass materials such as hemp, sulphur emissions from power
generation can be reduced (by 40%) and less valuable coal that is
high in sulphur can remain competitive.
Even
more exciting is the prospect of bio-coal,
a complete alternative to replace traditional coal with almost no
sulphur emissions at all . Currently, most bio-coal is made from
wood, but as we know hemp has a higher cellulose content
(57-77%) than wood (38-49%) it stands to reason that as we begin
to grow hemp more efficiently and in more abundance, that we could
eventually derive more cost productive and efficient bio-coal from
hemp.
So,
all this information is great, but where are all these amazing hemp
products? Where’s the hemp?
Officially, hemp is still illegal to grow in many states across the US and in Australia the fledgling hemp industry has been trying to join the rest of the developed world and produce oil and food for human consumption. A prohibition on growing industrial hemp in Australia was lifted in the late 1990's, but Australian farmers are restricted to growing fibre and construction materials and politics has prevented them from
gaining access to booming hemp food markets (hemp isn't legal for human consumption in Australia and New Zealand).
Industrial hemp is grown by Australia's biggest producer on farms and facilities in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, producing about 2,000 tonnes of raw material a year.
The US is finally getting 'turned on' by all the possibilities of hemp. With all that this amazing plant has to offer, and all the ways that it can change our world for the better, we need to support hemp growers, producers (and their products) and further research.
References;
Illegally green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition
Structural Benefits of Hempcrete Infill in Timber Stud Walls
Pinene is one of the most common monoterpenes which occurs naturally as two isomers (α-pinene and β-pinene, usually sourced from turpentine via dry distillation of coniferous wood [α-pinene makes up 58-65% and β-pinene around 30%]) and smells a lot like – you guessed it – a forest of pine trees! But pinene brings a lot more to a strain than just flavour. Terpenes such as pinene are essentially oils secreted in cannabis trichomes and while they originally developed as an adaptive protection against predators, these compounds offer us humans a variety of benefits. Found in cannabis, pines and other conifers, sage (salvia), sagebrush (artemisia) and eucalyptus, α-pinene is also found in olive, rosemary (memory herb), sassafras, bergamot and β-pinene is also found in hops and cumin. Pinene has been used for centuries in 'alternative' medicine.
