U.S. industrial hemp development continues

Biomass Magazine:

While a number of states allow hemp research, North Dakota was the only one to allow hemp cultivation until Vermont granted permission earlier this year.

Hemp pellets have a heat content similar to wood pellets at 7,247 British thermal units per pound with a 19 percent ash content.

In 2007, a Canadian prototype biomass research facility, ViFam Pro Services of Kirkland, Quebec, test[ed] hemp leaf biomass for heating pellets which were then analyzed at the Twin Ports Testing Labs in Superior, Wis. This past year, the tests were repeated using hemp biomass, stalk and leaf.

The pellet made from just hemp stalk had a higher energy content and lower ash content at 7,890 Btu per pound and nine percent ash content.

[F]igures from Canada show straw yields of 6 tons per hectare (2.47 acres) and 1.5 tons of fiber, in addition to 200 liters (50 gallons) of oil pressed from the seed.

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