OILSEED growers could soon have a new major market and at the same time help the aviation industry reduce its greenhouse emissions.
The University of Qld, along with SA researcher Trent Potter, is working with Canadian agritech company Agrisoma Biosciences to breed Brassica carinata – a mustard seed capable of producing biojet fuel – adapted to Australian conditions.
In Canada, the crop is grown during summer, but here the hunt has been on to identify lines that flower two to three weeks earlier. In 2017, more than 1900 lines were screened at nurseries in Gatton, Qld, and Bordertown.
“Carinata has a more compact flowering period than canola so while we have seen it flowering as late as early October it can still produce a lot of seed in medium to high rainfall areas. However, for our lower rainfall areas we need earlier flowering,” Mr Potter said.
In 2018, 48 breeding lines were tested at 20 sites across Australia, including Minnipa, Lameroo and Bordertown.
University of Qld School of Agriculture and Food Sciences’ Anthony van Herwaarden says despite the challenging year, it has shown promise, with yields ranging from half a tonne a hectare to 2-3t/ha.
He foresees strong demand for carinata with the aviation industry committed to carbon neutral growth from 2021. Annual jet fuel consumption is 300 billion litres, with this expected to lift to 500bL by 2030.
“There is already a more than 100 million litre annual shortfall,” Dr van Herwaarden said.
“We might see the aviation industry pay a slight premium for biojet fuel to meet commitments on reducing emissions.”
Last year a Qantas international flight between Los Angeles and Melbourne used a 10 per cent biojet fuel blend with its conventional fuel, reducing its emissions by an estimated 7 per cent.
Mr Potter says some of the best carinata plots look like they may have outyielded canola in 2018, although the final results are not yet available.
“Some of the carinatas looked pretty good and we observed them to have better blackleg resistance than the canola and less signs of white leaf spot, which was an issue in some of the canola,” he said.
But Mr Potter says more agronomic work is needed this year, especially on time of sowing, comparing the crop’s nitrogen use with canola, and how best to harvest the carinata.
“For the past two years, the seed has come from Canada and we haven’t put any in earlier than the 20th of May so we need to test an April sowing,” he said.
NEW OILSEED TIPPED TO HAVE BIOFUMIGATION ADVANTAGE
ONE tonne of carinata seed can produce about 450 kilograms of carinata oil and 550kg of seed meal, a valuable livestock feed, according to University of Qld researcher Anthony van Herwaarden.
About 30pc of this oil (90kg) can be used in biojet fuel while the remaining 270kg produced from each tonne is biodiesel.
Dr van Herwaarden says carinata could also have a soil biofumigation advantage on canola.
“The yield advantage we get from growing wheat after canola is 10 per cent to 20pc from fumigating the soil and we are confident carinata will be at least as good with higher glucasinolates,” he said.
Dr van Herwaarden says Agrisoma is targeting commercial release in 2021 but if all goes well there could be a limited release in 2020.
