Ontario Company to Build Commercial-Scale Hep Plant

[PFlynn]

Ontario-based Stonehedge Bio-Resources Inc. announced Jan. 21 it had received $2 million from United Kingdom investors to construct an industrial hemp processing plant in eastern Ontario.

Stonehedge has been researching industrial hemp for over a decade, and began work towards commercialization in the past few years. John Baker, founder and chairman of Stonehedge, said an exact location for the plant has not been secured yet, however, once finances are in line, a site will be chosen. “We’ve been working on it and are very close,” he said.

The company expects to begin construction of the facility this spring, which may employ up to 27 people within the next two years. The products and coproducts, such as wood-like chips and pellets, produced at the plant will be used for multiple applications, including energy production.

Baker said the plant’s power source has not been determined yet, however, the company would like to use its own product. The company would also like to construct the facility with “hemcrete,” a product made from hemp containing similar characteristics to concrete. He added that it may be difficult to do since the facility isn’t built yet, and it will be the first of its kin

“Hemp is the best crop for biomass, especially in this area,” Baker said. “We are utilizing plant genetics that date back 200 years—the constitution was written on hemp paper.”

The feedstock for the plant will be grown locally on an area of 150,000 acres to 200,000 acres. Baker said the facility will be capable of processing approximately seven tons of biomass per hour.



News Hawk: PFlynn - http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Biomass Magazine
Author: Anna Austin
Copyright: 2009 Biomass Magazine
Contact: Biomass Magazine
Website: Ontario company to build commercial-scale hemp plant - Biomass Magazine

[311stoner]

that's awesome, maybe the US will see this and pull their heads out of their asses as to the myriad of uses of hemp and hopefully jump on board.

[Frog]

No chance,
they(most common folks) still think hemp is marijuana.

[michaelkaer]

I live in SW Ontario. I wish this company would set up shop here as well. We have a company called enviroshakes that makes recycled shingles. It would be a natural fit as well as the fact that we have an ethanol plant here and we are currently putting up more wind generators every season. Soon this area will be almost self supporting as far as electricity and we still have oil and natural gas. The final thing we need is to have a plant like this come here and get the locals to grow hemp once again. The farmers got burnt bigtime by the US border guards stopping a shipment of hemp to a buyer in California.If we had a plant like the one east of us, we could have just turned around and sold it to the new plant. They still would have lost money on the deal, but we could then have sued the US under Nafta for reimbursement and damages. Coulda, shoulda,woulda... it is too late now, but we could start a new push for hemp here once the new plant is up and running. Good news for everyone.

[tintala]

CAN YOU IMAGINE , ... the farmers would actually make enough money to make a living while helping the environment. It's what would save us from going into the inevitable GREAT DEPRESSION II. Its coming folks, are you prepared? If hemp was redeemed, we would have the answer, but it's still not mainstream enough, like damago said. I need to farm it so that i can start using my farm again and make a living.

[michaelkaer]

I just posted a long piece on one of my blogs. In it I said the three main areas of job growth would be HealthCare, "alternative" or "Green" energy ( which included the new cars they are making that have solar panels built in that recharge the grid after they recharge their own batteries and things like renos of houses to make them more energy efficient) and the third and most likely most important would be farming, specifically organic farming and also specifically growing organic HEMP. The US will have no choice but to let the farmers grow Hemp if they want to stave off starvation. Rationing will be bad enough. Global Trade can only last as long as they have the energy to ship things. Once we go back to the wind powered days (with some modern convienences) it will be back to coffee, sugar, spices and hardy fruits like figs,dates and olives that will still be easily traded. That is further down the time line, but once there is no more easy oil to get it is a surething. When rationing does come(notice I said when, not if) farmers, trucks,trains and emergency vehicle will be the only ones to get the gas that is still left to be got. If Obama was smart he would annouce that the farmers can start to grow hemp as an emergency crop that takes little or no chemicals to produce. All he has to do is declare an emergency, it would not cost him any political points if he frames it correctly. Good luck to us all. The future is bright but only after we go through some dark times.