Henry Ford
(1863-1947)
American engineer, automobile tycoon
Though it is not well know the idea of hemp fuel has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. Thanks to the ingenuity of the HempCar Tras America team the dreams of one great inventor come to life over a half century later. HempCar Trans America is currently going on a cross country journey with their Mercedes Benz that runs on hemp fuel. Find out more about this hemp fueled car by visiting their web site http://www.hempcar.org
Photograph from the collections of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.
The concept of using vegetable oil as an engine fuel dates back to 1895 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel developed the first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. Diesel demonstrated his engine using peanut oil during the World Exhibition in Paris, 1900.
Today's diesel engines require a clean burning, stable fuel that performs well under a variety of operating conditions. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine. Because it has similar properties to petroleum diesel fuel, biodiesel can be blended in any ratio with petroleum diesel fuel. Many federal and state fleet vehicles already using biodiesel blends in their existing diesel engines. The low emissions of biodiesel make it an ideal fuel for use in marine areas, national parks and forests, and heavily polluted cities. Biodiesel has many advantages as a transport fuel. For example, biodiesel can be produced from domestically grown oilseed plants such as hemp, corn and other annual crops. Producing biodiesel from hemp and other domestic crops reduces the United States' dependence on foreign petroleum, increases agricultural revenue, and creates jobs.
Henry Ford demonstrates the strength of his car "grown" from a combination of
hemp and other annual crops, and designed to run on hemp fuel, by smashing it with a crowbar.
2003 - E4 Engineering - Car body materials are to be grown from plants in a UK project to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles while increasing their safety and fuel efficiency.
The Qinetiq-led Biomat project, which also includes Ford, will develop technologies to enhance the performance of plant fibres for use in injection moulded thermoplastic composites.
Funded by the Department for the Environment, the project aims to reduce the car industry’s reliance on unsustainable materials, by using fibres from plants such as flax and hemp to build composite parts.
Under EU legislation, cars must be made from 95 per cent recyclable material by 2015. Plant fibres are relatively easy to recycle, and require low amounts of energy to manufacture.
But natural fibres also offer additional benefits over man-made materials, according to Ford. "Natural fibres are very good at absorbing energy, allowing us to produce much tougher panels for enhanced safety," said Ford spokesman Gary White.Using components made from natural fibre composites also reduces the weight of the vehicle, improving its fuel economy, he said.
During the four-year project, the research team will use various forms of flax, hemp and coppice willow to develop the materials, and will also study injection moulding techniques.
Plant fibres are already used in some car components, such as the door panel trim on the Ford Focus, but the project intends to maximise the potential of biofibres, said Qinetiq’s Robert West, Biomat project leader. "We aim to produce strong, structural components, such as pedal boxes, rather than the cosmetic applications they are generally used for at the moment. Car bodies will be possible in the longer term."
During the first year of the project, the team will develop techniques for extracting fibres from the plants to produce longer, stronger fibres than existing materials, said West. The researchers will then seek to maximise the bond between the matrix and the fibres using chemicals developed by Qinetiq, including coupling agents.
"At the end of four years we will have produced demonstrator components, which will be road tested within the Ford group, and will allow very rapid exploitation of components within Ford cars," West said.
The project partnership also includes Visteon Automotive Systems, Enginuity, and the Biocomposites Centre at the University of Wales, as well as fibre specialists Hemcore and BioFibre.
Composites are increasingly being used by car manufacturers to build strong, lightweight and more efficient vehicles. Cranfield University recently announced it is to build a carbon-fibre concept car that would weigh half as much a metal equivalent and achieve 115 miles to the gallon.
source: e4 engineering, send questions and comments to: info@globalhemp.com
HENRY FORD AND THE HEMP CAR
In the 1930s the Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant, that included hemp, at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl-acetate and creosote. All fundamental ingredients for modern industry and now supplied by oil-related industries.
Popular Mechanics - December 1941:
ver in England it's saccharine for sugar; on the continent it's charcoal "gasogenes" in the rumble seat instead of gasoline in the tank. Here in America there's plenty of sugar, plenty of gasoline. Yet there's an industrial revolution in progress just the same, a revolution in materials that will affect every home.
After 12 years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body. Although its design takes advantages of the properties of plastics, the streamline car does not differ greatly in appearance from its steel counterpart. The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16" thick. Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting. Even the windows are of plastic. The total weight of the plastic car is about 2,000 lbs., compared with 3,000 lbs. for a steel auto of the same size. Although no hint has been given as to when plastic cars may go into production, the experimental model is pictured as a step toward materialization of Henry Ford's belief that some day he would "grow automobiles from the soil".
When Henry Ford recently unveiled his plastic car, the result of 12 years of research, he gave the world a glimpse of the automobile of tomorrow, it's tough panel molded under hydraulic pressure of 1500 lbs. per square inch from a recipe that calls for 70% of cellulose fibers from wheat straw, HEMP, and sisal plus 30% resin binder. The only steel in the car is its tubular welded frame. The plastic car weighs a ton less than a comparable steel car. Manufacturers are already taking a low-priced plastic car to test the public's taste by 1943.
Henry Ford once built automobile fenders and doors from industrial hemp, saying they were stronger than sheet metal.
Today, companies such as Adidas, Reebok, International Paper, Calvin Klein, Armani, BMW and Mercedes Benz are eyeing industrial hemp, a tough, fibrous plant with thousands of uses and a colorful past. Although no one is making automobiles from hemp, Mercedes Benz has pledged to build parts such as dashboards from it.
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