Artemis

Ironically the year is the 30th anniversary of back to the future, where the DeLorean was being fueled by garbage in 2015, I recall how everyone was amused but simultaneously thought …wouldn’t that be great… the thought held some kind of hope for the future.
With that being said in 1925 Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that ethyl alcohol was "the fuel of the future", he was expressing an opinion that was widely shared in the automotive industry. "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything," he said. "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."
Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, designed it to run on vegetable and seed oils like hemp; he actually ran the thing on peanut oil for the 1900 World's Fair. Henry Ford used hemp to not only construct cars but also fuel them.
Hemp fuel is biodegradable; so oil spills become fertilizer not eco-catastrophes.

Hemp fuel does not contribute to sulfur dioxide air poisoning.

Other noxious emissions like carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are radically slashed by using "biodiesel.
Hemp fuel is nontoxic and only a mild skin irritant; anybody who’s ever cleaned out an old carburetor with gasoline can confirm the same is not true for petrol.

Growing hemp for fuel would be a tremendous boon for American farmers and the agricultural industry,

http://rense.com/general67/FORD.HTM

Look at another form of mass t***sit that got booted, our railway systems, we are so out dated by other countries (who not bridled by the oil robber barons) we look archaic, not to mention an efficient t***sportation avenue we really don’t use. Why not?
It leaves a far less carbon imprint.

Well what happened??? The oil industry is what happened, and it is still preventing us from progress in order to hang on to the control. It is not the government we need to fear who seeks control us.

Floyd Brown Loc: Milwaukee WI

Our cities are laid out in such a way that mass t***sport don't work well.

Cars are needed.

Until cities are more people friendly not much will ever change.

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

I live in the country so a car is very necessary. I would never drive into the city were trains available. When I lived in Europe, I didn't own a car. I could walk to the village and everything I needed was there. If I needed to travel, the trains were always running.

I would like to see another type of fuel. Oil is a limited resource. We should be developing a cleaner, more efficient fuel. I agree our cities are not people friendly. In Georgia it appears wh**ever representative needed to sell land found a way to run a highway through it. The most confusing freeway system I have encountered and I have driven through third world countries.

JimMe

Seems like it is Time For "Hemp Barrens" to Appear... Just as Oil Barrens did 100-Plus Years Ago...

Artemis

I recall the first time I took a ride on the Disney monorail at the around 10 years of age and thinking by the time I grew up every big city would have them. Well unfortunately it didn't happen and only some airports have them. Why I'm not sure. Most large cities have loop highways surrounding them, a perfect place to construct them, those loop highways are always a nightmare. Every city should have a continuous circular rail for the city.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

I have had the privilege to know two men who worked on alternative fuels and fuel efficient engines. One sold his invention to Ford motor company and it was never produced even though it got 150 mpg, The other man was found dead in his work shop. He was working on a car that ran on compressed air that actually worked. Makes you wonder

Artemis

We've learned to manage soils since the dust bowl.

Artemis

Yes for sure Tom look what happened to the EV1, confiscated, torn apart and buried.

We have the technology for certain. When I see the auto industry commercials bragging on some vehicles getting 28 mpg I get disgusted what a complete joke.

What I don't understand is why people with big money don't invest in the production of some real substantially advanced cars. Maybe they are afraid.

Loki Loc: Georgia

You say we need to fear the oil industry rather than the government, yet a good bit of that government is firmly in the oil industry's pocket. Your point about industrial hemp are well-taken, however. Industrial hemp has a multitude of uses. It is a natural insulator, and is being used as "hempcrete" in residential construction in parts of Europe, especially those parts where "cob" houses are being built. Hempcrete lends itself very well to this construction method, and there are buildings constructed in this manner that have lasted for hundreds of years. It is energy efficient, and literally dirt cheap. You can Google this. Try Cob house construction, and google images also for pictures of some of these houses; they run the gamut from Fred and Wilma Flintstone to semi-mansions.
If they can survive for centuries in cold, damp climates like Northern Europe, they are suitable for pretty much anywhere.

boofhead

Hemp is a great plant with many uses, it is politically locked away from us and can be easily released if our "leaders" wanted it to be. The oil companies, I was told, are behind the blocking of hemp as a fuel, as well as those who believe it to be a drug like cannabis. It was in use and grown all over the US until the politicians did their dirty deeds.

Another viable fuel, available now and able to be used in most automobiles is natural gas (methane/propane). Many countries use it, and many fleet operators in the US use it. It is clean, efficient (if not priced too high) and does not harm engines.

It can be retrofitted to existing cars, but currently the DMV does not permit this. New cars are expensive because of the specific requirements for a CNG car but economy of scale comes into play if enough cars are built to handle it. A CNG car is safer in the event of an accident because natural gas dissipates when there is a tank rupture (not a likely scenario because of the design of CNG tanks) instead of pooling as does gasoline. Refilling is problematic right now because the oil companies have not set up enough refueling stations with this provision.

Most or all of the cons can be worked around and we could see a vast improvement in the use of energy. If people genuinely believed in g****l w*****g, for example, this would be a no-brainer.

Loki Loc: Georgia

Industrial hemp should be a no-brainer whether you believe in c*****e c****e or not. It can be used for everything from livestock sileage to building material to toilet paper.

Artemis

It seems the uses for corn are limitless, though I would imagine bug infested homes :? I'm waiting to see what are all the things we can do with a pine cone.

Either way I'm all for forms of independent energy that are biodegradable. :thumbup:

Artemis

I found it interesting in the fact that Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the car itself was constructed from hemp!

Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.

boofhead

The U.S. Constitution was drafted on hemp paper, and the final draft was written on animal parchment.

Artemis

Really I didn't know that I thought they used parchment or vellum, thanks that interesting. It's also interesting if it's like cannibus, hey I think we found a loop hole here for campfires burning! :wink: