Monday, June 22, 2009

Will the cabbage fuel be the future biofuel ?

Camelina, considered the cousin of Cabbage could reduce the carbon emission in the jet fuels to about 84 percent. Interestingly, it is one of the plant-fuels, which exhibits the lowest carbon emission when compared to the other plant derived biofuels. Even in my previous posts, I have mentioned the fact that, Camelina requires very little attention, it being a lowly weed does not require much use of fertilizers, water or nutrients.

Yet another unique attribute of this crop is that it has a capacity of converting oil to a hydrocarbon jet fuel that meets or exceeds almost all the petroleum and jet specifications. The most exciting fact about this crop is that, it is almost an exact replacement of fossil fuels. The cultivation of Camelina is quite easy, it can be cultivated on marginal agricultural lands as well. Camelina will not compete with the food-crops such as corn or soy.

The bottlenecks we face in using this great weed is it's price, the feedstock availability and it will be a bit difficult to convince farmers to grow this crop as well. Apparently, a recent news from Albany claimed that farmers were shocked when they came to know the potential of this Camelina oil crop. The Albany farmers were actually eradicating this weed for many years. Similarly, there are so many ignorant farmers in many parts of the world not knowing that this oil crop can do wonders.

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Related blog posts:

Camelina-Derived Renewable Jet Fuel Reduces 84% Carbon Emissions
Albany farmers plan to grow plant biofuel crops.

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