Science breakthrough using plants as fuel without impacting food security

Picture of CSIRO’s Dr Thomas Vanhercke, who has worked on the project for more than a decade. — CSIRO’s Dr Thomas Vanhercke has worked on the project for more than a decade.
© CSIRO Australia 2024-11-08

An Australian-led scientific breakthrough to increase oil yield from plants will help advance the production and use of biofuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel.

Developed over a decade by scientists from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, the technology was acquired by Australian agricultural innovation company Nufarm.

The Biomass Oil Project has been announced today, with Nufarm leading a new global research partnership to further develop the technology.

Oils from plants are produced by specialised seeds and fruits, but CSIRO scientists looked at extending that to the biomass of the plant, including the leaves and stem.

CSIRO’s Dr Thomas Vanhercke, who has been working on the project for more than a decade, said the technology would have the potential to create an important new global energy source.

“We were inspired to develop this technology in response to the world’s need for increased production of plant oil without impacting on food security,” Dr Vanhercke said.

“With CSIRO’s existing expertise in the area and the partnership with Nufarm on the Omega-3 canola project, we started thinking about how to extend that to the challenge of developing industrial scale feedstock oil from plants.

“We took the genetics for seed oil production and incorporated them across a range of crops with promising success.”

Current project lead, Dr Xue-Rong Zhou, said the world-leading research in boosting oil yield from plants is a major breakthrough for Australia and beyond.

“This development of new biofuels and renewable oils will support a sustainable future,” Dr Zhou said.

“We are looking forward to working with Nufarm and our global research partners to deploy the technology into high biomass energy cane and sorghum varieties and make it a reality.”

Nufarm CEO, Greg Hunt, said the company is now bringing together researchers from CSIRO, the University of Florida (UF), USA and the Instituto Agronomico (IAC), Brazil to take the work to the next level.

“We have assembled a consortium of world-class R&D and technical partners who bring unique experience to develop this technology,” he said.

“Nufarm is also working with key strategic partners to further support the technical project development and future downstream commercialisation.”

Find out more about the Biomass Oil Project.

About Nufarm

Nufarm is a global agricultural innovator providing crop protection and seed technology solutions to help our customers grow a better tomorrow. Established over 100 years ago, Nufarm is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:NUF) with its head office in Melbourne, Australia.