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University of Minnesota Awarded $10M from the Department of Energy for OILSEED Research Project

Through its Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), the US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the University of Minnesota $10 million for the Oilseed Crops to Sustain the Environment and Meet Energy Demand (OILSEED) project. OILSEED was selected as one of six projects working to “advance the production of low carbon intensity, purpose-grown energy crops critical to accelerating a clean energy bioeconomy.”  (BETO | DOE)

Dr. Mitchell Hunter, co-director of the U of M’s Forever Green Initiative (FGI), is OILSEED’s principal investigator, with project co-leads Dr. Marisol Berti of North Dakota State University (NDSU), Dr. Carrie Eberle of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Morris, MN, and Lyle DePauw of Cargill, Inc.

U of M, NDSU, and USDA-ARS will host field research sites and lead aspects of the research, while Cargill will provide analytical services at no cost to the project. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture, U of M, Cargill, and NDSU are providing a combined $2.5 million in matching funds, bringing the total project budget to $12.5 million.

“This support from the Department of Energy will greatly advance our efforts to enable widespread production of winter camelina and pennycress across Minnesota and the Upper Midwest,” said Hunter. “The DOE’s investment builds on and complements years of support from the State of Minnesota, USDA, and private philanthropies. Our research will aim to make these crops more profitable, more environmentally friendly, and more commercially ready.”

OILSEED’s overall goal is to advance a highly scalable system that can produce fuel feedstocks with very low carbon intensity while addressing intractable environmental problems in agriculture, including nitrate loss and declining soil health and erosion. The project will focus on a relay cropping system that produces an intermediate oilseed—camelina (Camelina sativa) or domesticated field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense)—as a harvestable winter crop grown after a summer-annual grain crop and before a soybean crop. This system, which produces three crops in two years, was pioneered by USDA-ARS in Morris.

Forever Green began on-farm piloting of winter camelina in Minnesota in 2021-2022, with support from the MBOLD coalition. Winter camelina is currently grown on a few thousand acres in the Upper Midwest, largely through an early commercial pilot led by Cargill and FGI. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport received its first shipment of jet fuel made with winter camelina oil last fall. Pennycress may be ready for early commercial activity in this region in the next 3-5 years.

“Winter oilseed crops like camelina and pennycress have the potential to be adopted on millions of acres in our region in the coming years and decades,” Hunter added. “As outlined in the recent Putting Down Roots report, widespread adoption of camelina, pennycress, and other crops that provide over-winter cover could reduce nitrogen loss from farmland by 23 percent and soil erosion by 35 percent. The winter oilseeds can preserve topsoil, protect water quality, feed pollinators, and, by producing low-carbon fuel, help fight climate change, all while giving farmers a new source of income.”

Both species produce plant oil that can be made into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other biofuels and bioproducts, as well as high-protein seed meal for animal feed. Fuel made from these crops can reduce emissions by more than 60 percent compared to petroleum jet fuel or diesel. In addition, well-managed stands of fall-planted intermediate oilseeds can reduce nitrate losses by up to 90 percent and soil erosion by up to 80 percent in winter and spring.

OILSEED will facilitate the use of the oilseed relay cropping system across the “Northern Corn Belt Plus” (NCB+), which extends from the eastern Dakotas to Michigan and from the I-80 corridor to the Canadian border. Specific research goals include:

  • Advancing feedstock development through agronomic trials; assessments of environmental, economic, and market conditions; extension programming; and policy analysis.
  • Accelerating oilseed commercialization on up to 35 million acres across the NCB+ region.
  • Ensuring equitable access to project events and findings among the NCB+ scientific and agricultural communities.

“This investment by the Department of Energy validates the Forever Green Initiative’s long-term, persistent efforts to develop winter oilseed cropping systems,” said Brian Buhr, dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). “It is through this kind of interdisciplinary, impact-driven research within CFANS that the University of Minnesota serves the people of Minnesota, the country, and the world.”

About University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative

The Forever Green Initiative is a cropping system research and development platform within the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. It is focused on developing and improving winter-hardy annual and perennial crops that protect soil and water while driving new economic opportunities for growers, industry and communities across Minnesota. The Forever Green Initiative’s portfolio includes more than 15 crops, each supported by a multidisciplinary team that may include expertise in the areas of genomics, breeding, agronomics, natural resource sciences, food science, sociology, economics and commercialization. This collaborative effort draws on additional expertise from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS), USDA-ARS St. Paul, USDA-ARS Morris, Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management (CINRAM), and the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA). Major funding support is from the Minnesota Legislature, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Clean Water Fund, Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, USDA NIFA, and private philanthropies including Builders Initiative, Walton Family Foundation, Cargill Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation.

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