Exploding Acreage

by Susanne Retka Schill (Biodiesel Magazine) Three developers take different approaches to filling the expected surge for demand in oilseeds with crops that promise low GHG scores. -- Remember the parable of the mustard seed? Developers of three oilseed crops—relatives in the mustard family—have faith they’ll soon have significant acreages of camelina, CoverCress and carinata seeded and harvested to meet growing demand. The exact acreages are held close to the vest, but developers are projecting tens of thousands of acres in the next few years, yielding between 1,300 and 2,500 pounds per acre, with oil yields ranging between 32 and 38%.

Related to the more familiar canola, they are all small-seeded, high-oil-bearing crops being promoted as winter cover crops that pay a financial return, as well as provide ecosystem services. All have similar characteristics to canola oil as a biodiesel or renewable diesel feedstock. And all are considered nonfood crops with no indirect land use impacts.

Winter cover crops are promoted by conservationists to stem erosion and reduce nutrient losses creating pollution issues through leaching into groundwater and surface runoff. Other ecosystem services include introducing biodiversity, which in turn reduces weed pressure and breaks disease cycles. Cover crops also provide spring blossoms for pollinators and build soil organic carbon. The major barrier to broad adoption, however, has been the farmers’ costs for seeding the crops and burning or working them down for spring planting.

While the benefits seem clear, successfully commercializing a new crop is a steep mountain to climb. There’s the agronomic challenge—developing crop varieties that reliably germinate and establish good stands, overwinter well and have minimal insect and disease issues. The varieties need to grow quickly in the spring and be ready for an early harvest, be easy to combine and resistant to shattering. On top of that, the development of any oilseed crop has to include ensuring the meal will be an acceptable feed.

Development of better-performing varieties has been aided by land-grant university researchers for all three crops, with initial trials occurring in multiple regions for all three before developers narrowed their development efforts into their respective regions.

Then, there’s the downstream challenge—creating a reliable, stable market. No new crop is going to make it if growers aren’t confident they’ll get paid.

Working to scale up production, Dale Sorensen, CCI chief commercial officer, traveled across central Illinois and Missouri meeting with small groups of farmers this winter, holding spring field days and filming the CoverCress harvest this spring. “It’s blown my mind the interest farmers have shown over the winter,” Sorensen says. He expects to recruit between 75 and 100 farmers for fall planting, with most interested in raising more than 100 acres and a few wanting to try 200 to 300 acres. The majority of acres harvested this spring will provide seed inventory for this fall’s seeding alongside multiple 5- to 20-acre demonstration fields. With CoverCress maturing in time for a mid- to late May harvest in that region, the crop is targeted at growers interested in following CoverCress with a late-seeded soybean crop. The preceding crop can be either corn or soybeans.

Verleun led the company’s regulatory efforts, securing a first-of-its-kind feedstock-only pathway in 2015 for Sustainable Oil’s patented camelina. On the company’s website, GCEH says its renewable diesel using camelina earns a carbon intensity score of 7 gCO2e/MJ, when a credit for meal is applied, and 23 without the meal credit. The U.S. EPA has listed camelina as an eligible Renewable Fuel Standard feedstock for advanced biofuels since 2013, which Verleun points out will generate not only a D4 RIN, but also D5 RINs (unlike soybean oil) for coproducts used as transportation fuel, such as naphtha or propane.

GCEH is positioning itself to go international, having acquired a Spanish camelina company, Madrid-headquartered Espana SL, in January.

As for midstream and downstream developments, Clayton (Alex Clayton, Nuseed Carinata global business development lead) says the company is in discussions around crush, but hasn’t announced anything yet. In February, Nuseed announced a 10-year strategic agreement with BP, “focused on accelerating our efforts and allows us to grow without worrying about where that grain is supposed to go,” he says. “BP may not consume all the oil, but they will market the oil as well.”

In those discussions, Clayton adds, “They were asking how they could help us reach meaningful volumes by that 2024, ‘25, ‘26 timeline when the big demand crunch is going to come, and we start on that hockey stick growth.” READ MORE