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ARS researchers have produced oils by the
barrelful from cuphea and other alternative crops, which may represent new
domestic sources of industrial products ranging from soap to biofuels for cars,
trucks andin the case of Cupheaeven jet fuel. Click the image
for more information about it.
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Producing New U.S. Energy Crops by the Barrel
By Don Comis
October 10, 2008 Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientists in Peoria, Ill., have produced oils of camelina, canola,
Cuphea, lesquerella, milkweed and pennycress by the barrelful in their
commercial-scale pilot plant.
These alternative crops may be able to provide alternative domestic sources
of industrial products ranging from soap to biofuels for cars, trucks
andin the case of Cupheaeven jet fuel.
Plant physiologist
Russ
Gesch and colleagues at the ARS
North
Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory in Morris, Minn., have
studied Cuphea since 1999. They work closely with companies such as
Procter & Gamble of
Cincinnati, Ohio. Procter & Gamble uses the type of fatty acids found in
Cuphea to make laundry detergent and other products.
The Morris scientists also work hand-in-hand with
Terry
Isbell and others at the ARS
New Crops
and Processing Technology Research Unit, part of the agency's
National
Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria. Gesch and his
co-workers study ways to grow the crops profitably, while Isbell and his
colleagues focus on methods of processing the crops into industrial products.
These crops all offer ways to sustainably grow fuel and industrial products
without depleting either the U.S. food supply or soils. The Morris scientists
also are beginning a long-term study of a corn-soybean crop rotation plan that
includes grasses for making cellulosic ethanol: switchgrass, big bluestem,
indiangrass, and a sorghum-Sudangrass hybrid.
Their goal is to develop cropping systems for optimal biomass production
while maintaining or enhancing soil productivity.
For example, when farmers plant pennycress as a winter crop, followed by
soybean as a summer crop, they are producing fuel in the winter and food in the
summer.
Cuphea is one of the few sources of oils in the United States that
contain the type of fatty acids needed to make soaps, cosmetics, motor oils and
industrial lubricants. These oils currently are produced commercially only in
the tropics, from palm kernel and coconut oils.
Read
more about this research in the October 2008 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency within the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.