We are going to grow to our own fuel
You might have heard a lot about biodiesel. Biodiesel is diesel than can power up your car that is made from vegetable oils and oil crops - such as Canola, Rapeseed or Camolina. It does not come from the regular crude oil that usually has to be imported from oil-producing countries. It can come from the Oregon Coast.
Biodiesel can be considered a new technology, taking into account all the years consumers have had to settle for traditional diesel. Using biodiesel for your car has many advantages:
Biodiesel is not harmful to the environment. Unlike its counterpart, a car using biodiesel produces fewer emissions. If a vehicle uses traditional diesel, the vehicle emits black, stinky smoke. With biodiesel, the smoke becomes very clean indeed.
Biodiesel is cheap. You can even make biodiesel in your backyard. If your engine can work with biodiesel fuel alone, then you really need not go to the gas station to buy fuel. You can just manufacture some for your own personal use.
We has selected to raise Camelina Sativa as our Biodiesel crop
Camelina Sativa
Also known as German sesame or Siberian oilseed. France: Cameline cultivee, Norway: Oljedodre, Denmark: Sæd-Dodder, Finland: Ruistankio, Germany: Leindotter, Spain: Camelina pilosa.
Camelina sativa belongs to the same family as rapeseed. Camelina is an oil crop which can be grown on cold and marginal lands without the intensive use of petrochemicals like it is the case with canola. This means its cultivation is more sustainable to the Oregon Coast. It is suited for colder climates and little rainfall. Camelina was first cultivated in Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. Seeds from camelina were crushed and boiled to release oil for food, medicinal use and lamp oil.
Camelina produces soy quality meal and canola quality oil. Camelina meal could be used for special high omega feed for fish, poultry, beef and dairy cattle, hogs, goats and pets. Today camelina is produced in Slovenia, Ukraine, China, Finland, Germany, Austria and the USA.
Camelina is relatively easy to grow and requires lower agricultural inputs compared to other crops. In Montana, USA they breed a new variety called MT5 with a better and higher oil content in the seeds. Another important issue of oil is the Fatty Acid Profile. This determines the cold flow properties when converted to biodiesel.
Camelina methyl ester was tested in Austria and found out to be comparable with the rapeseed biodiesel. Japan Airlines made a successful test flight in a Boeing 747-300 with Camelina based The Japan Airlines Found that Biofuel was more efficient Than Petro-Fuel.
Because camelina oil is relatively high (>50%) in omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and low in saturated fatty acids, camelina is considered to be a high quality edible oil. The health effects, technical stability and almond-like tasty aroma make camelina an important edible oil for the future.
Camelina meal is low in glucosinolates, and can be used for animal feed. Camelina meal is similar to or higher than soybean meal with 45 to 47 % crude protein. Because of its excellent omega 3 and 6 content, it can replace the fish captured in the wild which serves as feed for fish in fish farms.
Omega-3 fatty acids are in the spotlight of today's natural and holistic approaches to human health. These healthy essential fats have been almost entirely forced out of the everyday American diet by the commercialization of our food supply by the food processing industry. In recent years, extensive research and numerous clinical studies have confirmed that omega-3 fats are involved in numerous vital physiological processes in our bodies, and that their deficit may cause or aggravate many serious medical problems and conditions, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, and other cardiovascular problems, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, dermatitis, asthma, ADHD, and even cancer. Therefore, adding a good source of omega-3 fatty acids to one's diet is believed to be a good way of improving or preventing these conditions. The question of what constitutes the best source of omega-3 supplementation is, however, still being widely debated by scientists, doctors and consumers alike.
Fish and fish oils as sources of omega-3 fatty acids: benefits and disadvantages
There are two major known sources of omega-3 fatty acids: certain types of fish and their tissue or organ fat, also called fish oil or fish liver oil, and a number of plant seeds and their oils, flax oil being the best known one. Fish and fish oils are a fairly decent source of omega-3s. In fact, studies have shown that eating as little as one fish meal a week can reduce the risk of dying from cardiac arrest by fifty percent1. Another advantage of fish and fish oil is that they contain the most nutritionally available variety of omega-3s, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is converted directly into PGE3 - the compound responsible for most of the health benefits of omega-3 supplementation.
Camelina sativa is a rapid growth, 85-100 days from seed to harverst, oilseed. Winter sown crops are likely to give higher yields than spring sown crops. Camelina is best adapted to colder climates where excessive heat during flowering is not encountered. Its drought avoidance characteristic might make it better suited to drier regions than other oilseeds.
Camelina is an under-exploited crop species of great potential economical importance. We believe that camelina oils with improved fatty acid compositions will be useful for a variety of food and non-food uses.
Camelina sativa is by some considered a second generation crop as it can both provide oil and cellulose for ethanol production, without reducing the area for food production.