Proposed concept · Seeking partners · South Africa
South Africa: One Million Hectares
A national-scale development concept: hemp for housing materials and biofuels. Seeking a lead funding and development partner to test the pathway from pilot to scale.
Public overview. Partner identities, exact locations and supporting records are withheld. Potential figures are projections, not achieved or verified net removal.
A development ambition, not an operating project
One landscape. Two uses. A pathway to scale.
The concept allocates dry biomass equally between building materials and biofuels. No land has been secured and no South African yields or conversion performance have been validated by this scenario.
Base scenario outputs
Explore the assumptions
Gross storage is not net carbon removal. Fuel combustion releases its biogenic carbon; fuel output is not counted as removal. No lifecycle avoided-emission credit is calculated. The housing output is dry hemp material, not finished hempcrete or completed homes.
Calculation, evidence and limitations
Base inputs: 1,000,000 ha × 18 t dry biomass/ha = 18,000,000 t. Half to each stream. The fuel stream × 180 L/t = 1.62 billion litres. For construction, an explicitly illustrative 50% usable-and-retained fraction gives 4.5 million tonnes of dry hemp. A 45% carbon fraction × 44/12 converts retained carbon to 7.425 million tonnes CO2.
Dr Stefan Meyer, Tao Climate Economic and Scientific Review, 19 June 2026: the original 1,000-ha model assumes 18 t dry biomass/ha and 180 L fuel/dry tonne, with a 120–220 L/t range. It allocates the non-fuel stream to biochar. This page changes that stream to building materials and does not reuse the report’s biochar removal factor. Neither the yields nor simple linear scale-up have been validated for South Africa.
Construction assumptions: the 50% retained fraction is a scenario input, not a measured recovery rate. The 45% carbon fraction is consistent with the hemp-shiv samples reported by Diakité et al. (2021), Cell Wall Composition of Hemp Shiv. It must be confirmed for the local feedstock. Process losses are excluded from stored material and are not counted again in the fuel stream.
Before any net-removal claim: validate cultivation and harvest losses, dry mass, processing recovery, binder and energy emissions, transport, storage duration and end-of-life, baseline, additionality, leakage and reversal risk. Net removal, credit eligibility and certification remain unquantified. Fuel qualification, conversion economics and any lifecycle benefit also require validation.
One harvest per cultivated hectare per year is assumed. A million hectares harvested each year could require a larger rotation land base. Land rights, food production, water, biodiversity, local communities, agricultural suitability, infrastructure and market demand must be assessed before choosing sites or committing acreage.
Fund the evidence before scaling the promise.
- Feasibility. Local partners, suitable land, water and community engagement.
- Pilot. Measured crops, material testing, fuel-conversion trials and full lifecycle accounting.
- Demonstration. Verified mass balances, permitted facilities, building demand and offtake.
- Scale. Expand only as yields, economics and environmental outcomes support it.
From interest to evidence.
Explore this summary, discuss your requirements with Tao, then request access to the detailed project record. Signing up alone does not grant access to partner information.
Funding concepts are proposed programmes. Land, local partners, permits, conversion facilities and offtake must be secured and validated before delivery.