We need your help! Click here and answer a short questionnaire to help improve the platform.

TITLE

Camelina & crambe oil crops as sources for medium-chain oils for specialty oleochemicals

OBJECTIVE

This 4.5-year project aims at reducing the dependence of Europe’s oleochemical industry on imported plant oils by turning camelina and crambe into profitable, sustainable, multipurpose, non-transgenic European oil crops. The European oleochemical industry currently relies on imported coconut and palm kernel oils and fatty acids and on castor oil as sources for medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA, C10–C14) and medium-chain polymer building blocks. These are needed for the production of plastics, surfactants, detergents, lubricants, plasticisers and other products. COSMOS aims at reducing this dependence by turning the currently underutilised domestic oil crops camelina and crambe into profitable, sustainable, multipurpose, non-transgenic European oil crops for the production of oleochemicals. Seed properties will be screened and optimised through genetic techniques aiming at high yield, low resource inputs, optimisation of the value generated from vegetative tissues and fatty acid profiles adapted to industrial needs. Large-scale field trials will be performed at different locations in Europe to assess the potential of the crops in terms of cultivation practices, seed yield, oil content, ease of harvesting, and resource inputs. Extracted oils will be fractionated into various fatty acid types (monounsaturated versus polyunsaturated) by selective enzyme technologies and extraction processes. The monounsaturated long-chain fatty acids so obtained will be converted to medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) and high-value building blocks for bio-plastics and flavour and fragrance ingredients through chemical and enzymatic chain cleavage processes. The ω3-rich polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) fraction will be purified for use in food and feed ingredients. Vegetative tissues such as straw, leaves and press cake will be fed to insects producing high-value proteins, chitin and fats. Insect fats and proteins will be isolated and prepared for use in food and feed products. The overall economic, social and environmental sustainability as well as life cycle of the whole value chain will be assessed. The impact of the project for Europe will be assessed in terms of value chain potentials for value creation and number of jobs that can be created.
ACRONYM

COSMOS

FUNDING SOURCE

H2020

WEBSITE http://cosmos-h2020.eu/
REPORT https://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/196237_en.html
CROP CATEGORIES

Oil

Rate this Innovation

PROJECT DURATION

2015-2019

PROJECT TYPE

EU

NUTS3
CROP CATEGORIES

Oil

KEYWORDS

Camelina

Crambe

Oleochemicals

Oil

Bio-plastic

Food

Feed

Insect fats and proteins

OTHER GEOLOCATION
FUNDING SOURCE

H2020

FINAL REPORT

https://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/196237_en.html

TOPICS

Cultivation & agronomic management

Harvest & logistics

Uses/applications

COORDINATOR

WUR

PARTNERS

ARKEMA FRANCE (FR)

APEIRON SYNTHESIS SPOLKA AKCYJNA (PL)

UNIVERSITE DE RENNES I (FR)

VALSTYBINIS MOKSLINIU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS FIZINIU IR TECHNOLOGIJOS MOKSLU CENTRAS (LT)

CENTRE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES AND SAVING FONDATION (UK)

ENZYMICALS AG (DE)

IFEU - INSTITUT FUR ENERGIE UND UMWELTFORSCHUNG HEIDELBERG GMBH (DE)

IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE (UK)

INCATT BV (NL)

KRECA ENTO FEED BV (NL)

LINNAEUS PLANT SCIENCE BV (NL)

NOVA-INSTITUT FUR POLITISCHE UND OKOLOGISCHE INNOVATION GMBH (DE)

SOLUTEX GC SL (ES)

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA (IT)

UNIVERSITAET GREIFSWALD (DE)

UNIWERSYTET WARMINSKO MAZURSKI W OLSZTYNIE (PL)

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY (NL)

PROTI FARM R & D BV (NL)

This 4.5-year project aims at reducing the dependence of Europe’s oleochemical industry on imported plant oils by turning camelina and crambe into profitable, sustainable, multipurpose, non-transgenic European oil crops. The European oleochemical industry currently relies on imported coconut and palm kernel oils and fatty acids and on castor oil as sources for medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA, C10–C14) and medium-chain polymer building blocks. These are needed for the production of plastics, surfactants, detergents, lubricants, plasticisers and other products. COSMOS aims at reducing this dependence by turning the currently underutilised domestic oil crops camelina and crambe into profitable, sustainable, multipurpose, non-transgenic European oil crops for the production of oleochemicals. Seed properties will be screened and optimised through genetic techniques aiming at high yield, low resource inputs, optimisation of the value generated from vegetative tissues and fatty acid profiles adapted to industrial needs. Large-scale field trials will be performed at different locations in Europe to assess the potential of the crops in terms of cultivation practices, seed yield, oil content, ease of harvesting, and resource inputs. Extracted oils will be fractionated into various fatty acid types (monounsaturated versus polyunsaturated) by selective enzyme technologies and extraction processes. The monounsaturated long-chain fatty acids so obtained will be converted to medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) and high-value building blocks for bio-plastics and flavour and fragrance ingredients through chemical and enzymatic chain cleavage processes. The ω3-rich polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) fraction will be purified for use in food and feed ingredients. Vegetative tissues such as straw, leaves and press cake will be fed to insects producing high-value proteins, chitin and fats. Insect fats and proteins will be isolated and prepared for use in food and feed products. The overall economic, social and environmental sustainability as well as life cycle of the whole value chain will be assessed. The impact of the project for Europe will be assessed in terms of value chain potentials for value creation and number of jobs that can be created.

Be the first to comment this!

Add new comment

{{ comment.nickname }} at {{ comment.created_at }}

{{ comment.title }}

{{ comment.comment }}

Get it on Google Play


Disclaimer excluding Agency responsibility. Any dissemination of results must indicate that it reflects only the author's view and that the Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains This license applies to all contents on the website except where explicitly indicated on the page or in the document and except for contents aggregated from other websites, in which case the original licensing applies