Cannabis as a Feedstock for the Production of Chemicals, Fuels, and Materials: A Review of Relevant Studies To Date
Francisco Pascual Gomez, Jinguang Hu, Matthew A. Clarke
Abstract
As societies place greater emphasis on sustainability, there is a move toward creating a circular economy in which renewable resources, such as agriculture and forestry residues, serve as feedstocks in the production of energy and chemicals. One emerging agricultural commodity that may potentially serve as a feedstock for numerous chemicals and materials is cannabis. For most of the last one hundred years the use of cannabis as a biomass feedstock has been all but impossible, due to its legal status. However, over the last 20 years the changing legal status of cannabis has resulted in a large number of studies which have investigated cannabis as a feedstock for diverse bioproducts, including polymers, pulp, and biofuels. Being a relatively new agricultural commodity, the literature on chemicals, fuels, and materials derived from cannabis is spread across numerous disparate disciplines, such as engineering, agriculture, chemistry, and biology. Thus, the purpose of this review is to compile and summarize the relevant studies that illustrate the use of cannabis as a feedstock in the production of chemicals, fuels, and materials as well as to highlight the challenges and possibilities for future research opportunities.