Hemp biofuel

The high yields that hemp can achieve make it an attractive candidate for a multitude of products. Besides its nutritional uses for the oils, there are numerous technical and energetic applications. Like other oil seeds, the extracted hemp oil can be further processed into biodiesel. This is performed by transesterification of the triglycerides in the hemp oil. Biodiesel produced by this method is considered a first-generation biofuel. However, using land and potential food sources for energy production is often neither ecologically nor economically beneficial.

Another biofuel that can be produced from hemp biomass is bioethanol. Bioethanol is generally produced by fermenting sugars to alcohol. Bioethanol produced from sugarcane or sugar beet is considered a first-generation biofuel and shares the same disadvantages as biodiesel from hemp seeds. Hemp biomass has a low concentration of simple sugars that can be directly fermented, so the lignocellulosic biomass, composed of complex sugars, needs to be broken down before fermentation. Lignocellulosic bioethanol is considered a second-generation biofuel since it can be produced from non-food sources and agricultural residues. Whilst being ecologically beneficial the economics are difficult due to the necessary pretreatment and the relatively new technology.