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Pennycress potential biodiesel feedstock
Pennycress could become a sustainable biodiesel feedstock, according to the National Biodiesel Board. Illinois farmer Brad Glenn has put pennycress into his corn and soybean rotation for four years, but before that, it was considered a weed.
“All farmers recognize it but may not even know it by name, because it really hasn’t been a problem weed or hard to control. But farmers will see it in their waterways or fencerows or ditch banks or something like that,” Glenn told Brownfield Ag News. “It hasn’t been a challenge, so a lot people don’t know it by name.”
In the right growing zone, pennycress can be a second crop in rotation with corn or soybeans. Pennycress is best grown in an area between I-70 and I-80, said Alan Weber, an advisor to the National Biodiesel Board.
“They’re looking at that region primarily because of the fact that pennycress can be harvested earlier, at least relative to winter wheat, and so therefore it offers a better potential for the double crop soybean crop following the pennycress,” said Weber.
Pennycress is an oilseed yielding 36-percent oil when crushed. An acre or pennycress would yield the equivalent of about 80 gallons of oil, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
Glenn and his partners are contracting with other farmers to grow and harvest the plants. They plan on crushing the seeds and selling the oil to biodiesel producers. This year the pennycress oil is priced similarly to soybean oil.
To plant pennycress, Glenn has the seed sown from an airplane into standing corn in the fall. It germinates under the corn, and is harvested in early spring using a soybean combine. Soybeans are planted after the pennycress is harvested. It’s then crushed with conventional crushing equipment, and the meal has potential value as livestock feed.
Estimates are that there are potentially 40-million existing farm acres for the crop. But starting small, Brad Glenn would like to see farmers plant 10-thousand acres of it in Central Illinois next fall.
AUDIO: Brad Glenn (11 min. MP3)
AUDIO: Alan Weber (6 min. MP3)
Tags: Agronomy, Biodiesel, Grains/Oilseeds, Illinois
why is hemp being swept under the carpet? those of you who know better and are in the horticulture field, ahem ahem, should know it’s not in the same ballpark as MJ….its uses range from fiber to fuel to food.. oh wait, i get it, lets wait the same way they waited on stevia!! lets demonize it until someone can corner the genome/extract and THEN it’ll become all wonderful and glowing and great and very legal. ok, i know know.. fine, keep on walking nothing to see here.