Companies Form Joint Venture to Produce Camelina-Based Biodiesel
20 November 2007
Targeted Growth, Inc. (TGI), a renewable energy bioscience company, and Green Earth Fuels, a vertically integrated renewable biodiesel energy company, have formed a joint venture called Sustainable Oils, Inc. to produce and to market up to 100 million gallons of camelina-based biodiesel by 2010.
Camelina sativa is an oilseed plant in the family Brassicaceae, which also includes rapeseed (Brassica napus). (Canola is a group of cultivars of rapeseed variants.) C. sativa can grow on marginal land, requires minimal water or fertilizer, and can be harvested with traditional equipment. Nearly all of the initial camelina production is expected to be grown in Montana. The deal represents the largest single US contract yet for the biodiesel-specific feedstock.
TGI’s main scientific program focuses on significantly increasing yield in commercial crops (>10%) through enhanced growth and establishing resistance. Its current platform incorporates genes that target yield and have been tested in Arabidopsis thaliana in the lab and in Brassica napus (rapeseed/canola) in the field.
The enhanced yield technology involves regulating a putative transcription factor and a cell cycle regulator. The use of specific promoter-gene combinations allows Targeted Growth to optimize the most valuable part of the plant. TGI notes that this technology is also safe because the regulated genes are endogenous genes or those from closely related plant species.
TGI has been perfecting Camelina for the past three years in greenhouse and field trials. Specifically, it has used non-transgenic molecular assisted breeding programs to create a crop that is well suited to Montana’s climate and soil and that produces high quality biodiesel.
We have created a better feedstock for biodiesel. Camelina can be rotated with current Montana crops, it grows in land with lower agricultural value, and it doesn’t significantly increase the use of fertilizer or irrigation water. We think this will be a model for the development and use of other biofuel-specific crops.
—Tom Todaro, CEO of Targeted Growth
A European research project—Innovative Biodiesel—that sought to define the ideal fatty acid profile of oils and fats for production characterized camelina as having a high iodine number (175.0)—far above the EU standard of 120 specified in EN 14214. The ASTM D6751 standard does not specify an iodine number. (The iodine number is a rough indication of stability, negatively influenced by a higher number of double-bonds in fatty acids.)
In testing, a camelina oil methyl ester produced higher NOx yields than the other tested biodiesel fuels as well as the baseline petroleum diesel. (The project found a correlation between lower iodine numbers and lower NOx emissions.)
Although camelina has lower oil content than rapeseed/canola (about 35% compared to about 43%), its variable and fixed costs are between 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of canola.
Resources
“Innovative Biodiesel”, a European research & development project
Biodiesel Production for On-Farm Use: A Curriculum for Agricultural Producers (Piedmont Biodiesel)
A. Fröhlich and B. Rice. “Evaluation of Camelina sativa oil as a feedstock for biodiesel production”, Industrial Crops and Products, 21 (1) January 2005, Pages 25-31 doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2003.12.004 >
Excellent news for USA/Canada farmers and gas guzzler owners.
S
However, this new agrofuel crop seems to have many of the unwanted side effects of corn ethanol.
If it can or is rotated with other food crops, it will use good food crop land.
Does not significantly increase the use of fertilizer & water (over what other land use?)
Has higher iodine content creating higher unwanted NOx.
Lower oil content vs canola (35% vs 43%)
Has a god send estimated LOWER COST, 1/3 to /14 lower than canola.
In other words, if farmers can make more profit growing Camelina Sativa, they will switch crop (from corn, grain, canola etc) very quickly. The effect on food price may be much the same as for corn ethanol.
Posted by: Harvey D | 20 November 2007 at 08:54 AM
Haryey D, agriculture practices are required to rotate crops to prevent degredation of the land persay. You can not grow corn two seasons in a row on the same acre of land because it won't work. This is meant to be a roational piece of the agricultural puzzle.
Posted by: BG | 20 November 2007 at 09:12 AM
BG:
Farmers can (and do) successfully rotate 'Food Crops' wihtout agrofuel crops.
USA and Canada can spare (and already do) a few million hectares for agrofuel feedstock production with meaningful but acceptable increase in food price. Time will tell, what 2x, 3x, 5x or 10x the land area used for agrofuel will do.
Can the rest of world do it without creating major food and water shortages?
Electrification of our ground transportation vehicles is a much wiser solution.
Posted by: Harvey D | 20 November 2007 at 09:50 AM
Harvey D
Uhhhhhh,
My TDI won't run on GAS, but gets 46MPG on Biod.
It's as far from a gas guzzler as you can currently get.
Marginal land by definition is not good food crop land.
Ever heard of a NOx scrubber.
81% of the yeild of Canola for 25-33% the cost. How exactly is this bad, I'm confused.
Posted by: Joseph | 20 November 2007 at 10:07 AM
I didn't see a mention of insect invasion which is a problem of Brassica crops. The field trials maybe hadn't yet been visited big time by certain kinds of caterpillars eg Plutella genus, which will increase growing costs and cut yields. Remember we also want the machinery to run on Camelina biodiesel and any waste to be recycled as fertiliser.
In my opinion oilseeds are the wrong approach. That should focus on second generation biofuels and electrification.
Posted by: Aussie | 20 November 2007 at 11:20 AM
Brassica is the mustard family, which includes cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, and mustard.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz | 20 November 2007 at 12:16 PM
Green Earth Fuels' website says they are in Texas and they have some rather big backers, e.g., Carlisle Group and Goldman Sachs. I'd guess oilseed biodiesel is fairly low tech and can be made profitable quickly, given sustained high oil prices. More efficient methods, like algae, are still being thought out. This is also interesting; the aim is to be able to continue to use existing infrastructure:
"We operate production and distribution sites that are independently located within petrochemical infrastructures in key U.S. coastal locations, allowing for more efficient integration of biofuels with existing diesel or petroleum blends, and avoiding the need for changes in petrochemical infrastructure and distribution systems."
Posted by: Jim G. | 20 November 2007 at 12:46 PM
@Aussie
What are the ideal second generation biofuels in your estimation?
One of their research goals is "establishing resistance" which could be to diseases or to insects.
The advantage here is probably that algae ponds probably don't do so well in Montana, but there's lots of marginal lands that can be cultivated with existing farm equipment.
I also think electrification is the best way to go because there are more markets for electricity. I would like to see a few hundred square miles of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico covered with solar thermal power plants.
Eventually, I think every electric car will have an IP address and it will buy electricity on a spot market using an algorythm meant to minimize price while ensuring sufficient charge for that owner's driving patterns. That way, cars will make optimum use of the shining sun, and just maybe sell electricity back to the grid at a profit when the sun isn't shining and demand is highest.
Posted by: HealthyBreeze | 20 November 2007 at 12:52 PM
joseph:
81% vs 25% to 35% for canola is great as long as we use it (mostly) for food and 100+ mpg PHEVs NOT to feed our existing 10 mpg oversized gas guzzlers.
The problem with producing very large quantities of agrofuels is that it will perpetuate the use of oversized gas guzzlers and have drastic effects on food price.
If we are going to feed our personnal ground transport vehicles with farm stocks, we should do it wisely with 100+ mph vehicles, to limit the fuel required below what the excess land can produce.
I agree with you that cellulosic based agrofuels may eventually be produced with feed stocks, from land unsuited for food production, and may even provide more fuel per hectare. Will it be enough for 100+ million gas guzzlers?
Posted by: Harvey D | 21 November 2007 at 01:42 PM
Even small amounts of renewable diesel fuels (biodiesel and renewable diesel), combined with more efficient diesel cars, can result in greatly lowering our dependence on foreign oil.
According to the EPA, a one-third market penetration of diesel cars could net us a savings of 1.4 million barrels of oil per day. This is approximately 6.3% of our current usage and equates to what we currently import from Saudi Arabia. I would hardly think this plan does anything to help owners of gas guzzlers. In fact, diesel cars are quite to the contrary as earlier noted. I too drive a Jetta TDI, and I too get about 44 mpg consistenly, running B20 biodiesel.
Moreover, a 5% blending of biodiesel and/or renewable diesel fuels can lower our petroleum consumption by about the same amount as we import from Iraq.
So. Just by having one third of our cars as diesel powered and having only 5% of the fuel used to power them come from renewable fuels, we could stop importing oil from the two largest exporters to us from the middle east.
Posted by: greg | 09 December 2007 at 10:36 AM
I saw this article about the top 10 greenest cities: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=3225220. I never thought I would see LA in front of Seattle and San Fran. I went to the site that published the list (www.earthlab.com) and took their carbon calculator. I got a 257 which is pretty good compared to what I think other people probably get. After I complete some pledges I think it will be much lower. Check it out it only took me like 3 minutes to get my score. The website is www.earthlab.com.
Posted by: Nick | 17 December 2007 at 01:24 PM
flag and Mexican
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