1. Industrial Oil Crops Supplying the
Chemical Industry
Anders S. Carlsson
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU),
Alnarp
SEI / SIANI workshop 2014

2. Crude oil underpins all aspects
of modern society
10%
Petrochemical
industryFuel
• Solvents
• Chemical feedstocks
• Lubricants
• Plastics
• Synthetic fibers
• Synthetic rubber
• Detergents
• Chemical fertilizers
• Transportation
• Industrial sector
• Residential/Commercial
• Electric utility
Global annual consumption
of crude oil in 2012:
4,000 million metric tons
90%

3. Fossil oil alkane
Fatty acids
Myristic acid
(14:0)
Oleic acid
(18:1)
Glycerol
Oil molecule (triacylglycerol)
Plant oils are very similar in chemical
structure to fossil oil.
Plant oil
Fossil oil
Fossil oil is mainly derived from plankton oils converted from fatty acids into
alkanes during high temperature and pressure under millions of years .

4. Source: USDA
160 million metric
tons
Palm
34%
Soybean
27%
Rapeseed
15%
Sunflower
9%
Palm
Kernel
4%
Cottonseed
3%
Peanut
3%
Coconut
3%
Olive
2%
Oil Usage (%)
80
6
14
Industry
Feed
Food
World Plant Oil Production 2012

5. Replacing fossil oil with plant oils
Feedstock
10%
Fuel 90%
Fuel
3.5%
Feedstock 40%
Plant oil
160 million
tons
Several options

6. Food oils
Industrial oils
Oil crops
Risk mitigation

7. Plant oil feedstocks
Oleic acid (18:1)
Technical oil qualities
Fatty acids with functional group
Epoxy
Hydroxy
Conjugated
Very long fatty acids
Medium fatty acids
Wax esters
FeedstocksFood Feedstocks
’Multi purpose’ oils

8. Requirements
Oil Crop Platform
 High quality of product
 Low price
 Use of existing production infrastructure
 Low environmental impact
 Non-food oil crops producing technical oils.
 Identity preservation and low risk of out-crossing
 Availabillity of modern breeding tools

9. EU 7th Frame Program
ICON
Industrial Crops producing added
value Oils for Novel chemicals
Large collaborative 5 yrs project
(6 million € of EU funding, total budget 10.7 miilion € )
Third country participants:
Canada
USA
Australia
China
Coordinated by Prof. Sten Stymne, SLU

10. The jojoba plant has seed oil (wax esters) with excellent
lubrication properties. Due to high production cost only
used in high-end products such as cosmetics. If made
cheaper this oil quality would make an excellent
alternative to fossil oil as feedstock for engine and
mashine lubricants.
Fatty acid
Fatty alcohol
Wax esters differ structurally from common plant oils
Wax esters
Common plant
oil i.e. triacyl-
glycerol (TAG)

11. Production of biolubricants
in form of wax esters
in industrial oil crops using
plant biotechnology
An icebreaker in
industrial plant oils

12. In order to facilitate regulatory approval of GM crops for industrial uses,
we were not using any food crop or any crop that can easily cross with
food crops as vehicle for the industrial oil qualities
Crambe abyssinica
Brassica carinata
Camelina sativa
Choice of Oil Crops

13. We should not use any part of
the plant for feed uses
In order to find non-feed added value
for the seed cake, one ICON partner (Innventia) was
developing methods to produce plastics from it.

14. 18:1-CoA
Chloroplast
Fatty acid production in
the chloroplast
22:1-OH
20:1-CoA
22:1-CoA
22:1-22:1
Wax
esters FAE
FAR
WS
FAR and WS genes from Jojoba were used to modify oil
production (transgenic) in the three chosen oil crop
platforms to produce wax ester qualities.
Cytosol
Oil crop platforms producing added value oils
Wax ester (jojoba quality)

15. Fatty acid reductases (FAR) and wax
synthases (WS) are ubiquitous enzymes in
bacteria, protista, animals and plants
Over 30 FAR and WS genes from various
organisms were characterized in ICON

16. Why is that important?
By varying the length of and/or the number of functional
groups on the fatty alcohol and/or the fatty acid carbon
chains, different wax ester qualities for a wide range of
feedstock applications can be achieved.
Fatty acid Fatty alcohol

17. We have now wax ester of jojoba type in all
three of our industrial oil crop platforms
( up to 50% of the oil).
Winterized Camelina sativa seed oil
Wild typeWS3- 4 -14
Wax
esters
Transgenic Crambe lines
Wax
esters
Triacylglycerols
Transgenic Carinata lines
Wax esters
Triacyl-
glycerols

18. 18:1-CoA
Chloroplast
Fatty acid production in
the chloroplast
20:1-CoA
22:1-CoA FAE
Three gene construct for very high
erucic acid gave GM Crambe seed oil
with up to 77% erucic acid (Wt 59%)
Cytosol
Oil crop platforms producing added value oils
18:2-CoA
Genetic
block of
this
pathway
22:1 FA
22:1 FA
LPAAT
22:1 FA
(ultra-high erucic acid)
Erucic acid is transformed
into erucamide that is used
for lubrication and as slip
agent to decrease friction in
polymer and plastic
industry

19. Field tests in Sweden 2012 and 2014 with Crambe
with 20% wax esters and 73% % erucic acid
Grease manufacturing
and lubrication
tests by Axel
Christiernsson
International
AB

20. The ICON project was regarded as a success story
by European commission

21. E.g.
Conjugated FA (USDA)
Ricinoleic FA (WSU, Montana State university)
Cyclopropane FA (Brookhaven National Laboratory)
Different medium chain fatty acids (University of Nebraska)
High Omega-7 FA (Brookhaven, University of Nebraska)
Acetyl-triacylglcyerols (Michigan State University, Kansas State University
In parallell to ICON, a number of research groups
are working with developing other industrial seed
oil qualities with biotechnology in USA.

22. How can we increase the total production of plant oils?
There is one more problem…
Plant oil 160 MT/year
Oil Usage (%)
80
6
14
Industry
Feed
Food
A large portion of
the plant oil is
today used for food

23. Plant Oil
Weat Maize
Future oil crops with biotechnology
Sugarbeet
Starch to oil
Sugar to oil
2.5 ton oil/ha
4 ton oil/ha

24. Thank You

25. Monsanto estimate that it costs up to 60M USD for one GM
event!
In US, permission for commercial cultivation of GM
crops at very low cost can be granted if it is contract
farmed and the permit holder surveil the cultivation to
make sure that seeds and plants are not spread outside
the contracted area. Example: Arcadia Biosience
Safflower with gamma-linolenic acid (Sonova 200).
• No expensive animal tests have to be done for pure non-food crops
• Non-food GM oil and products can be exported to any country in the
world without any regulatory approval and without any GM label.
What about de-regulation costs?