Archive for the ‘Chinese Tallow’ category

There’s a new player fueling the alternative energy market and it’s picking up speed as fossil fuels continue to fall short. Camelina, an oilseed crop in the same family as mustard, is currently being grown throughout the United States and Canada and crushed to produce biodiesel by Great Plains-The Camelina Company.

With several crushing partners in North America, Great Plains has produced more than 10 million road miles of camelina biodiesel to date, and plans to boost production to 100 million gallons by the year 2012.

Camelina offers a solution for reaching this biodiesel production goal by providing a sustainable, low-input biofuel feedstock option that does not interfere with food production. Camelina is virtually 100 percent efficient. It can be harvested and crushed for oil and the remaining parts can be used to produce high quality omega-3 rich animal feed, fiberboard and glycerin.

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In many respects, the tallow tree offers the ideal energy crop for biodiesel production along the gulf coast. It thrives in wet areas that cannot be farmed profitably with conventional crops. It has few insect pests and diseases and is tolerant of salt, prolonged flooding and occasional freezing temperatures. It has low nutrient and other management requirements. These characteristics as well as the tallow tree’s exceptional ability to produce high-quality vegetable oil underscore its commercial potential as a low-input, high-return biodiesel crop.

Tallow seeds contain 45-60 percent vegetable oil, about two to three times the amount found in an equivalent weight of soybeans. Yields average 12,500 pounds of seeds per acre containing 2,300 pounds of stillingia oil, 2,500 pounds of wax, 1,400 pounds of protein concentrate, 982 pounds of fibrous coat and 4,000 pounds of shell (endocarp). Per acre, these oil yields are 15 times more than soybeans, 10 times more than sunflower or safflower, seven times more than peanuts and five times more than rape seed. Annual commercial production averages about 645 gallons – the equivalent of 15.4 barrels of oil per acre. Some experts cite figures as high as 970 gallons or 23.1 barrels of oil per acre.

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Biodiesel Magazine reports on a new potential biodiesel feedstock, the Chinese tallow tree. It is said to be a potential algae-as-feedstock rival if yield reports of 1,000 gallons of oil per acre are true. Although it is known as an invasive nuisance tree, it does have potential for oil extraction from both its seeds and its woody biomass. The tallow tree holds great promise in its oil-for-biodiesel content, so research is underway on how to use this plant to its fullest ability. Time will tell which view wins in this debated tree’s usefulness.

Full article here