Plant Fuel Demand Puts Premium on Camelina Crop

By Jim Martin, Erie Times-News, Pa.

Jun. 9–Mark Troyer thinks his 10-acre patch of camelina looks like a bunch of weeds.

But he and some other local farmers are hoping that looks are deceiving and that camelina makes good on its promise as the next big thing for the biofuel industry.

The plant, which grows up to 3 feet tall, produces greenish-yellow flowers and a small seedpod. More important, when those seeds are crushed, they yield about 40 percent oil, twice as much as soybeans.

Better yet, it’s a crop with a guaranteed buyer.

Joel Hunter, an agronomist with Crawford County Cooperative Extension, said he was approached more than a year ago by officials from Lake Erie Biofuels, which has promised to buy all the camelina that local farmers can grow.

The company, which is currently using canola and soybean oil as well as waste grease, confirmed that it’s prepared to buy the camelina oil. No price has been set yet, however.

Mike Noble, operations manager at Lake Erie Biofuels, said he’s pleased by the interest shown by local farmers, some of whom had to be turned away from the popular pilot program.

“It’s very encouraging both to me and the National Biodiesel Board that supports these endeavors throughout the United States,” he said.

Noble acknowledged that camelina might be no better than other sources of oil, but it does provide an alternative, one that can be produced under more marginal conditions.

About a dozen area farmers, organized and encouraged by Crawford County Cooperative Extension, have already placed their wagers. Together, they’ve planted about 300 acres of camelina in Erie, Crawford and Mercer counties.

Hunter doesn’t see the search for alternative fuels as something that should wait.

“This is a right-here, right-now thing,” he said. “We have a huge new market for vegetable oil for biodiesel.”

That’s why the Extension Service bought 1,000 pounds of camelina seed for farmers to grow and promoted the idea with local farmers through a series of winter meetings.

“Once we were sure we could grow it, we were pretty aggressive because it looked like a real opportunity,” Hunter said.

Troyer, president of Troyer Farms in Waterford, isn’t ready to get out of the potato business, but he has planted 10 acres of camelina.

“We are in the farming business, and I believe we need to maximize our income off each acre,” he said. “A lot of times, that includes looking at alternatives. What worked 20 years ago might not work in 2010.”

Hunter, who was in Montana last week doing research on that state’s 10,000-acre camelina crop, said this is more than a potential cash crop.

He calls it a good fit for farmers trying to incorporate soil- and energy-saving practices such as crop rotation.

Like soybeans, corn and other crops now being used to produce fuel, camelina has more than one use. That could ultimately push camelina prices out of reach for biofuel producers.

The May 30 edition of the Capital Press quotes Duane Johnson, vice president of the Great Plains camelina company, as saying the success of camelina will hinge on producing enough to satisfy the demand for camelina cooking oil and for biodiesel production.

If that doesn’t happen, he said, “that would kill us in terms of making biodiesel.”

For now, however, local farmers are getting their feet wet.

Tom Wilson, a farm agent with Crawford County Cooperative Extension, said he’s trying a few acres himself.

“We know it grows. We just don’t know under what conditions,” he said. “We are going to learn a whole lot about it.”

Troyer said it’s hard to measure his own success growing a crop he’s never seen before.

“I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like,” he said. “It looks like weeds to me.”

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