Essay Sample: Industrial Hemp as a Potential Bioenergy Crop

Establishing a commercial market relationship between the Hemp industry and the Biofuel industry is something that is abnormal and should become more normalized. Key innovative players are experimenting with various raw materials that will provide higher efficiency, create lower emission levels, and be cost-effective for customers. Companies have started expanding their business through various mergers and acquisitions, in order to cater to the rise in demand for a renewable energy sources. The key users of biofuels are in all areas of transportation from car manufacturers to marine shipping, to the aviation and jet fuel industry. Energy/Biofuel companies also distribute fuel through business-to-business relationships to those that consume fuel, sell fuel, and store fuel. The biofuels market embodies an enormous opportunity to tie together the agricultural and refining industries through biofuel processes, fuel blenders, and consumers.

The demand for a secure, sustainable, and clean energy supply is expected to propel the demand for biofuels across the globe. The North American market is very progressive and dominant, due to the relatively abundant feedstock and cultivatable land for biofuel production. The global market size of biofuels is roughly worth over $145 billion as of 2020 and this market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7% from 2022-to 2030. By 2030 the biofuel market will be worth upwards of $275 billion. In North America, key companies are Gevo, Inc, Renewable Energy Group, Inc., Valero Energy Corporation, Algenol, Green Plains, Archer Daniels Midland Company, BlueFire Renewable Group Inc., and Cargil. All of whom have created biofuel through other feedstock-based raw materials. The key companies that are utilizing Hemp feedstock biomass as a biofuel alternative are Atlantic Biomass, LLC., and Generation Hemp, Inc., which we know of so far.

Both of these companies have already begun testing and partnering with colleges and companies testing/using hemp-based biofuel. Just recently Atlantic Biomass, LLC., announced the results of their Phase 1 Maryland Energy Innovation Institute Scale-Up project to verify the use of residual hemp biomass (the low-value leftover hemp can be economically converted) for the production of biofuels including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).” Just recently 2/25 “Generation Hemp, Inc., a Dallas/Fort Worth-based pure-play hemp company, announced a collaboration with a leading player in the Bitcoin hardware resale business, Crypt Solutions, Inc. To build a bitcoin in their own backyard which will be the first Bitcoin mining installation that will ultimately utilize hemp biomass as a biofuel feedstock to power the mining equipment.”

Our Hemp company will be located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We will be structured as a Hemp reseller agency for Hemp farmers and become a Hemp supplier for buyers of biofuel feedstock. We will create a business-to-business relationship with both farmers in the Midwest area and manufacturing biofuel companies in North America. The participants in our buying center will consist of influencers, gatekeepers, and deciders, who will seek out Hemp farmers to purchase and buyers with the manufacturing equipment, and an existing customer base supply. Using request for proposal (RFP), influencers, gatekeepers, and deciders will begin by creating a contracted network with local Midwest farmers harvesting Hemp who are looking to build real wealth and aid in the restoration of their rural economy. The buying center will then seek out purchasing agents at prevailing biofuel production companies looking to enhance their operation through an RFP of Hemp biomass. Our second-tier future potential customer will consist of expanding network to Colorado, Montana, Kentucky, California, and Oklahoma which currently are the largest producers of Hemp accumulating roughly 200,000 acres of Hemp crop. Brazil, the European Union, and China are anticipated to be some of the major regions driving the demand for liquid biofuels, which is a future opportunity for us to supply Hemp to.