Lexington, KY - Patriot Bio Energy recently became the first corporate member of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, and the company aims to prove that industrial hemp is useful for the coal fields of Kentucky.
Roger Ford, CEO of Patriot, said that by mixing the woody stalk of hemp with coal, polluting emissions can be reduced while maintaining a high Btu value, the measure of heat that drives energy production at coal-fired power plants. There’s also the role industrial hemp crops could play in reclamation of mined coal fields while boosting the region’s economy with manufacturing opportunities. Hemp has a diverse portfolio of products, including paper, fiberboard, horse-bedding, textiles, paint, fuel, and more.
“I have 50 pounds of hemp horse-bedding in storage,” said Ford. The horse bedding came from north of the border where industrial hemp is a legal crop for Canadian farmers.
“We’re having conversations with a couple of companies to provide coal,” he said.
Ford is no stranger to the coal industry, having been a coal broker for about six years. He said that, in private talks, certain coal industry leaders have shown interest in hemp as a reclamation crop as well as biomass for a cleaner burn.
“We’re just not at a place where we want to put any names out,” said Ford, regarding the coal companies that will be providing coal samples and watching with interest as the laboratory tests unfold.
Ford said testing will be done at Mineral Labs in Salyersville, Ky. Mineral Labs conducted an earlier study for Patriot that found industrial hemp to have a Btu value between 8,700 and 9,000, a value that is greater than that of western U.S. coal and a little less than eastern Kentucky coal, said Ford. The new round of testing will be done on the combination of coal and hemp.
“We have to develop our protocols — different ratios of coal to hemp and how it is blended, whether straight-up grinding it as powder or briquetting it,” Ford said.
Patriot is funding the research at Mineral Labs. Ford expects the report by mid-March. That report will give Btu values at different ratios of hemp to coal, along with an analysis of NOx (nitrogen oxides), SOx (sulfur oxides) and other emissions.
“We expect to utilize the report to expand the research and lay the foundation for scale-up to commercial production for power plants and other end-users,” Ford said.
Another scenario that Ford envisions for industrial hemp in Kentucky is the provision of horse-bedding and energy to horse farms.
“Use of hemp as horse bedding is straightforward and has been done,” said Katherine Andrews, who consults with Ford on hemp research. Andrews, who currently resides at a Bluegrass horse farm, has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and was cofounder of the Joint Bioenergy Institute at UC Berkley, where she served as vice president of strategic integration.
“The next step, conversion of the hemp-manure mixture to methane, is certainly viable, has been optimized and published as recently as 2012 by a Finnish group,” Andrews said.
The methane fuels power generation. But Andrews also sees a bigger picture for hemp.
“Besides material for co-combustion with coal,” Andrews said, “we can produce biodiesel from the seed oil, which can be used as is or converted to jet fuel. Likewise, the whole plant can be used as a feedstock for fermentation of ethanol or longer chain fuels — gasoline, jet fuel, the list goes on — with huge markets associated. The ability to capture even small percentages of markets of this scale would be a tremendous boost to Kentucky.”
Interest in bringing industrial hemp back to Kentucky agriculture and the state’s economy continues to spread, especially with the wholehearted advocacy of James Comer, Kentucky’s commissioner of agriculture. Comer called industrial hemp a “no brainer” for Kentucky. Two hurdles stand in the way of industrial hemp returning to Kentucky agriculture. One is at the state level, and the other at the federal.
On the state level, Senate Bill 50 provides procedures that would allow and facilitate industrial hemp cultivation, if there is the requisite change at the federal level.
“I’m encouraged by the bipartisan support of that bill,” said Ford, speaking of SB 50. “The endorsement of it by the Kentucky Chamber is a good sign for its passage. Regardless, whether it passes or not, we will continue our research. It needs to be done to show the viability of the crop.”
Industrial hemp, though not a drug crop like its relative, marijuana, is still illegal by federal law, though it was once a widespread and useful crop in the United States, even grown by some of the country’s founders. It was last grown in Kentucky as part of the war effort during World War II.
“It’s time for the federal government to change the law and allow the great opportunities that industrial hemp offers to rural economies,” Ford said. He also said he’s encouraged by the bipartisan support in Kentucky’s Senate delegation.
“I’d like to see the entire Kentucky delegation behind it,” he said. “I’d like to see Senator McConnell, Congressman Rogers, Congressman Whitfield, Congressman Guthrie — I’d like to see them all publicly stand by this and go on record in support of it.”
Senator Rand Paul, Congressman John Yarmuth, Congressman Andy Barr, and Congressman Thomas Massie have all stated public support for legalizing industrial hemp.