07/27/07 Two opposite views on camelina

Stephen Guy is now in his third year of researching camelina, a brassica crop that he believes has great potential in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. It can be grown under drier conditions than canola and with less input costs. Guy sees a future for camelina. GUY "Take the oil from that crushing and make biodiesel out of it and then be selling the meal as an animal feed." But another University of Idaho researcher Jack Brown says that's the problem, there is no end use. Brown is researching mustard and canola and says camelina doesn't have regulatory approval for human or animal consumption. As a fuel Brown says camelina biodiesel gels at a higher temperature than fuel made from canola creating cold flow problems. It has a short shelf life but he says most important is that it is high in a fatty acid that oxidizes very quickly. BROWN "Poly unsaturates in fuel when you burn the fuel converts to NOX, nitrogen oxide emissions and NOX cause acid rain." Duane Johnson of Great Plains Oil in Montana expects regulatory approval soon on camelina food and feed use and as a fuel he says it's similar to soybean produced biodiesel, which is the standard for the US industry. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott