Researchers are working on using the oils from pennycress seeds to create fuel for the aviation industry.
“We know we can make ethanol from corn and we can make biodiesel from soybeans. But we’re really taking food off the table for feeding humans to fuel our cars and planes and everything else,” said Win Phippen, a professor in the School of Agriculture at Western Illinois University.
“So it makes more sense to have a dedicated industrial crop that is going to be making fuel, and leave our corn and our beans for food consumption or feeding our cattle and our livestock.”
Phippen said it’s also much more efficient to produce fuel from pennycress than it is to manufacture ethanol from corn because pennycress has natural plant oils stored in its seeds.
“It’s anywhere from 30 to 37 percent oil. So essentially what we have to do is simply squeeze the oil out of the seed to get the oil that goes onto fuel,” he said.
The remaining pennycress seed meal does not go to waste – Phippen said it can be used to feed livestock, providing an added benefit.
The goal with pennycress is to create a fuel that’s just like petroleum.
“Because it is going into existing engines and airplanes and things like that. It has to perform exactly the same way,” Phippen said.
But unlike petroleum, this is fuel coming from a renewable source.
Airline industry ‘absolutely’ on board
Phippen said the Biden administration has challenged the aviation industry to be fully zero carbon by 2050. And there’s a shorter-term goal of using 50-percent renewable fuels by 2030.
“Pennycress is one of those feedstocks that can help us reach that goal,” he said.
According to Phippen, less than one percent of aviation fuel currently comes from renewable sources. Everything else is petroleum-based.
He said worldwide consumption of aviation fuel is predicted to be at least 97 billion gallons this year. It will take pennycress and other crops to meet that demand.
“We’ve got a long ways to go. 97 billion gallons a year is a lot of fuel,” he said, adding other industrial crops that might help with reaching the goal include canola, camelina, and carinata.
Phippen said the airline industry is “absolutely” on board with this.
He said researchers have developed a commercial variety trademarked under the name CoverCress. It’s being produced by the CoverCress company. Their commercialization is focused on the central part of Illinois because pennycress/CoverCress is a cold weather annual, so it grows well in this region – it wouldn’t do well any further south than Illinois.
In addition, west central Illinois has the river and rail transportation networks in place to ship the seeds to a new plant being built in Destrehan, Louisiana, where they will be crushed for fuel.
Phippen said CoverCress is partnering on the plant with Chevron and others. The factory could go online within a couple years.
He said CoverCress is golden in color, while wild pennycress has black seeds.
Phippen said they will be putting in six acres of research plots at WIU this fall. But CoverCress is planning on doing 10,000 acres through a network of producers in the St Louis and Carbondale areas. Growing it on a larger scale will help them figure out the supply chain and how combines, grain wagons, and the like need to be adjusted for the plant’s seed.
Pennycress is also a cover crop
Phippen said his interest in pennycress dates back to 2008.
He said a now-retired colleague, Terry Isbell, who’s a chemist from the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research's Bio-Oils Research unit in Peoria, was driving home one day and saw pennycress growing in the field.
“And he’s like, wow, that looks like a real crop out there. But it was just a weed. It was just a weed in a farmer’s field,” Phippen said.
Isbell harvested some pennycress, took some seeds into the lab, and discovered it would make a good fuel. He sent Phippen a pound of seeds and asked what he could do with it.
Phippen, who’s an agronomist and plant breeder, started collecting pennycress around country and developing varieties.
He said right out of the gate, they recognized pennycress had the oil properties that would make it an excellent fuel source.
In addition, it grows quickly and grows during the winter months, which makes it an ideal cover crop.
“We are trying to get producers interested in cover crops. We know there are benefits in growing cover crops on the landscape,” Phippen said. Those benefits include improving soil health.
But currently, farmers don’t realize a financial gain from cover crops. Plus, there have not been many options – mostly rye, perhaps a winter wheat. Pennycress is something new in the field of cover crops.
“It’s a harvestable cover crop, which is unique,” Phippen said.
So pennycress has gone from being considered a weed to potentially playing a role in addressing climate change – both on the farm and in the sky.
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