One of Europe’s largest biodiesel producers, Saipol, a subsidiary of France-headed Groupe Avril, has confirmed receiving the first commercial shipment of Nuseed Carinata oilseed. Grown as a scalable non-food cover crop in Argentina, the oilseed will be used for processing into a renewable fuel with "best in class" greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction confirmed by an independent SCS Global audit and certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB).
A non-food oilseed crop designed for biofuel production, Carinata – Brassica carinata or Ethiopian mustard – was originally developed by Canada-based Agrisoma Biosciences Inc.
Carinata, a proven high performance, purpose-built biofuel feedstock is capable of replacing petroleum fuels with a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The RSB certification verifies that the reduction is best in class, giving us complete confidence in maximizing the use of carinata as a feedstock in our biofuels, said Romain Lebas, Head of Sustainability and Low GHG Sourcing at Saipol.
Nuseed Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australia-headed Nufarm Ltd added Carinata to its global portfolio in November 2019, following a successful pilot project in Argentina and acquiring specific Carinata technology from Agrisoma.
Experts from the development team joined Nuseed and, by working closely with Nuseed’s South America and European teams, have accelerated commercialization by building the Nuseed Value Chain with R&D, contract growers, industry partners, and RSB certified delivery to the end-use customer in just five months.
RSB certification is a fantastic achievement for Nuseed Carinata. A fully independent third-party audit process analyzes absolutely every production and supply chain step to verify the GHG reduction – meaning that Avril can have absolute confidence in the climate benefit of this feedstock. Factors that contribute to Carinata’s excellent GHG reduction include its high biomass and carbon sequestration from the atmosphere to the soil, as well as the fact that it is grown in rotation with other crops and does not require additional farmland. This is alongside a range of other environmental and social benefits that Carinata has demonstrated in order to achieve RSB sustainability certification, explained Rolf Hogan, RSB’s Executive Director.
Proven biofuel feedstock
Replacing petroleum diesel with renewable fuels produced from Nuseed Carinata oil is a proven innovation. Nuseed Carinata is a scalable and sustainable oilseed cover crop used to produce renewable fuel from one of the lowest carbon feedstocks available, carinata oil. A co-product of crushing carinata to extract the non-food oil is a high protein, non-GMO meal for animal feed.
International airlines, including Qantas and United Airlines, have already proven the drop-in, purpose-built benefits of using carinata as a feedstock for biofuel to reduce GHG emissions.
We connect R&D, regulatory, contract growers, industry, logistics, and end-use customers for a sustainable solution to a very real problem – the world’s need for fuel and its impact on climate change. We’ve demonstrated both supply and sustainability through our work with Argentinian growers and achieving RSB certification with this first commercial Nuseed shipment, said Glenn Johnston, Nuseed Head of Regulatory affairs for Carinata.
