How big of on impact would switching from fossil fuels to hemp ethanol have on the environment?
July 16th, 2010 | 
Author: Couldn’t this single switch reduce the impact people put on the environment astronomically? Also to start using hemp for paper rather than all the pollution and deforestation from using timber?
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Problem with ethanol is that it requires distillation. That requires heat. What are you going to use for a heat source that won’t pollute as bad as cars?
I’ve seen pictures of Brazilian ethanol plants spewing black clouds of smoke worse than our steel mills did in the 60′s. Where are you going to grow the hemp? Why not use Kudzu?
its a matter of preference. some people dont care so they dont change. but it is all just a matter of preference
ofcouse and shutting down las vegas would make america better too. but i doubt that would happen soon
You’re just trying to justify your fascination with the weed. The advantage of biofuels is that the hydrocarbons are basically from the CO2 and H2O in the environment instead of of hydrocarbons liberated from their Earthly tombs. This means that nothing is added to the environment hence there is no cumulative environmental impact. This can be done without hemp, without ethanol and indeed without changing a single car if we simply synthesize gasoline and diesel either directly from CO2 and H2O or from syngas produced by biomass gasification. All the processes are already there, Sandia Labs has the CR5 reactor to produce syngas from CO2 and H2O, our waste disposal plants already gasify trash and dried sewage into syngas to run turbines to generate electricity, we already synthesize diesel and other hydrocarbons from syngas to dilute fossil fuels in order to meet the federal ultra low sulfur diesel requirements, to recover heavy oils from the oil sands, and to recover stranded natural gas reserves. We don’t actually need hemp or ethanol, electric or hydrogen vehicles to have a carbon neutral economy, just a willingness to pay a minimum floor price of $4 a gallon for gasoline in the US.
Where do you think hemp grows? The use of ethanol that is made from corn has already been a problem. People are cutting down trees to grow corn, and the price of corn has spiked, making this dietary staple too expensive for many people in poorer countries to afford.
If we convert more corn farms (or wheat farms, or whatever) to hemp farms, people will go hungry.
There would be no food.
It would take all of our farmland, and far more, and there still wouldn’t be enough.
currently grown crops will not be a replacement for the coal and oil we use.
it cannot work.