The Hemp Biomass Fuel Solution:

tnewcomb — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 21:19:48 +0000

The Hemp Biomass Fuel Solution: tnewcomb Thu, 12/30/2021 - 16:19

The Hemp Biomass Fuel Solution:

Once widely cultivated for fiber and food, field hemp has been restricted for some decades throughout much of the world. This was largely due to it's similar appearance to it’s narcotic cousin. In 2018 the US Government federally legalized Agricultural Hemp. Cultivation is becoming more popular worldwide as a source of raw fiber, seed, oil and non-narcotic medicinal products.

Fair Use: Hemp Harvesting

In recent years another portion of the crop has drawn our interest: The inner hurd, (commonly called ‘hemp straw’) is currently considered a waste product by farmers. Hemp hurd has ratios of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose similar to the hardwood tree species which Carbon Analytic refines to become solid fuel products.

Being an annual crop, hemp provides a very fast, annual source of fuel as a complement to tree sources. Hemp has relatively low moisture and fertility demands and is therefor well suited for growth in over-farmed or otherwise marginalized areas. Hemp is an excellent candidate for soil restoration when properly managed.

For this purpose it is best grown as part of a regenerative program designed to reclaim lost soil vitality. For example: Following a simple soil test, corrections are made for ‘ph’ including slow release organic fertilizers like rock powders. Such interventions typically raise fertility levels in both top and sub-soils for many years.

Fair Use: Mature Hemp Root System

In temperate zones, fiber hemp is sown around May 15th and harvested approximately August 15th, leaving a stubble and an extensive root system that reaches 3-4 feet in depth. These carbon rich materials are tilled into the topsoil, preparing an immediate seed bed for an over-wintering ‘green manure’ crop like red clover (who’s roots survive winter frost).

Red Clover ‘fixes’ free nitrogen from the air which it uses both for it's own growth and transfers directly to the soil through it’s roots. It also liberates many other elements from rock powders in the soil, storing them in it’s tissues along with the nitrogen. Like hemp, red clovers also have extensive root networks, sometimes burrowing 9’ or more deep! These massive root systems release carbon and nitrogen gathered from the air back into the soils where they belong. Then, just prior to planting time (for hemp), the clover is tilled under and immediately sown back to hemp, repeating the cycle.

Fair Use: Young Red Clover

Following this type of practice, the soil has constant living cover and protective mulch, guarding against erosion from sun, wind and rain. This keeps the surface absorbent, taking in rain whether heavy or scarce. The ‘tilled in’ biomass from both crops contributes to the formation of black soil or humus. While growing, these plants produce even more humus by sequestering atmospheric CO2 (carbon) in the leaves through photosynthesis. This process forms carbon rich sugars which are fed through their roots to the multiplex of soil fauna and flora, increasing humus. Humus is key because it safely stores carbon into soils. It's spongy quality holds large amounts of ground water and becomes a living buffer to critically important underground aquifer storage.

Modern combustion of petroleum fuels has added large volumes of both CO2 and water vapor from prehistoric eras. Although the phenomenon of rising carbon levels is fairly well known and studied, water vapor has captured less public attention. Combustion of petrochemicals cause the formation of water vapor and carbon gases which were not present before, to be released into contemporary ecosystems. By conservative estimate, this amounts to ocean increases over 125,000 cubic miles of water over the past 100 years, as much as up to 10% increase in ocean rise along with stored water lost to deforestation. As atmospheric temperature rises, the atmosphere increases in size, holding increasing levels of greenhouse water vapor, twice as reflective of heat that CO2. The potential for these compounds disrupting the current atmospheric and oceanic homeostasis on which human civilization currently exists is very real.

The full topic of 'greenhouse' gas accumulation from modern fuels to the atmosphere and oceans is beyond the scope of this article. It should be said however that water vapor is both a more potent ‘greenhouse’ gas than CO2 and present in much greater volume. To have stable water vapor is normal for nature's needs. Excess water vapor and oceanic accumulation works against the stability of natural processes.

Note: 'Greenhouse' is a coined term that oversimplifies the heat dynamics between Earth and space.

Water vapor quickly condenses, or rains out and runs into the oceans. There, it swells near the equator from the centripetal forces of planetary rotation and gravitational forces of the moon. Aside from the known refractory warming effects of atmospheric water vapor, meteorologists have discovered another complex and potentially hazardous outcome of over-synthesis of water from petroleum combustion: increased micro-crystalline ice is formed as vapors rises from the equator into the stratosphere over the polar regions. In higher elevations of the atmosphere, excess water vapor feeds a process called "super saturation" creating a condition where water takes on a fourth phase which is damaging to Ozone. The natural weather cycles move these increased moisture levels toward the north but mostly south pole. This in turn damages the ‘ozone layer’ above the southern pole which normally protects the earth’s surface from ultraviolet radiation. These effects continue to be one of the serious causes for concern following the elimination of industrial refrigerant gases, regulated out of use in the 70s.

When we take a more global view of regenerative agriculture as a large scale source of biomass fuel energies, we can see the value of these technologies as climate and ecosystem stabilizers in two critical ways:

Although biomass fuel consumption does create water, carbon and thermal emissions just like conventional hydrocarbon fuels, the source of these elements in the case of biomass fuels comes strictly from those already contained in the contemporary biosphere. In other words, no geological aged elements are being discharged into the atmosphere from biomass combustion, unbalancing ratios and threatening current homeostatic status. Further, Carbon Analytic energy production systems focus on converting combustion water vapor back to liquid to keep it regional at the source.

There are multiple ecological benefits of cultivating industrial hemp on a regenerative basis as outlined above. One of the main ones is it’s ability to reverse the alarming global trend called desertification.

Fair Use: Land mass degradation from desertification.

Very often, modern agricultural methods subject delicate soil systems to the harsh exposures of sun, wind, rain, poorly managed grazing and chemical interventions. The net effects include a cumulative loss in both soil permeability and water holding capacity, releasing water and carbons safely stored there into the atmosphere. Regenerative biomass farming under the Carbon Analytic model exactly reverses desertification. When practiced large scale globally, it offers effective solutions for ecosystem stability, clean energy, employment and business opportunities. In fact, the Carbon Analytic processes of refining biomass fuels and the energy conversion thereof is not only 'greenhouse' neutral, but negative. This is because our combustion technologies are clean and efficient and the regenerative farming methods for raising biomass fuels gather 'greenhouse' elements from the air and store them safely into the soil where they belong.

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