Experimental Plots of Pennycress Tested for Biodiesel Potential

USDA - ARS
By Jan Suszkiw
November 26, 2008

Field pennycress may go from weed to "wonderfuel," thanks to studies by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Peoria, Ill.

There, a team of ARS scientists led by Terry Isbell has been researching the annual winter weed's potential to yield a bumper crop of oil-rich seed for use in making biodiesel and other products, including an organic fertilizer and natural fumigant. Historically, pennycress has been a bane to farmers. But now, with America's quest for "homegrown" alternatives to petroleum, the plant is getting a second look.

In July, Peoria-based Biofuels Manufacturers of Illinois, LLC (BMI) entered into a two-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with ARS to conduct laboratory and field trials aimed at teasing out pennycress's production characteristics as both a cultivated crop and biodiesel feedstock.

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