More farmers are growing weeds to harvest for biodiesel.
Some Midwestern farmers are just finishing their harvest of pennycress, a weed that produces about 20,000 seeds per plant that are composed of 36% oil, twice that of soybeans, and has a chemical composition that is ideally suited for conversion to biodiesel or green renewable jet fuel. An acre of pennycress can yield the equivalent of about 80 gallons of oil. This year the pennycress oil is priced similarly to soybean oil.
“I saw an opportunity to produce an energy crop here-and-now on underutilized assets with no negative impact to the environment or the farm,” said Peter Johnsen, who has been instrumental in commercialization of the crop. Johnsen is a retired director of the USDA’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill. “A great benefit is that we can grow pennycress during the winter on existing farms that would otherwise just sit dormant. It has no impact on existing crops, conservation grounds, or critical wildlife habitat,” he said. Johnsen estimates there are potentially 40 million existing farm acres for it.
For growing pennycress, the best approach the team found is to drop the seeds from an airplane into standing corn in the fall. It germinates under the corn, and is harvested in early spring using a soybean combine, before soybeans are planted. It’s then crushed with conventional crushing equipment, and the meal has potential value as livestock feed.
The National Biodiesel Board is encouraged by the development of this new feedstock. “The diversity of fats and oils from which biodiesel can be made has always been one of its greatest strengths, and pennycress is a perfect example of how our industry is innovative and sustainable,” said Alan Weber, who runs the National Biodiesel Board’s feedstock development program.
There’s even a website devoted to growing pennycress as an energy crop – growpennycress.com.
Obama spoke to workers at TPI Composites, a company that makes blades for wind turbines and employs more 700 people. “If Congress doesn’t act, companies like this one will take a hit,” he said. “Jobs will be lost. That’s not a guess, that’s a fact. We can’t let that happen.”
There are over 300 locally and independently operated FS FAST STOP and FAST STOP Express locations so GROWMARK Renewable Fuels Product Manager Brigette Harlan says they are carefully researching all the steps that need to be taken to offer E15 to guide them. “We’re working very closely with the 
Harlan says they recently updated their Biodiesel Quality Program, which has been in place since 2007. “It includes a specification that we require of all of our suppliers that’s tighter than the ASTM specifications, and also includes storage and handling and appropriate blending guidelines,” she said. “We just want to make sure that we are putting out there the best quality product that we can.”
Aviation and clean technology leaders have joined together to launch the 
