By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — It will be another winter season of wait-and-see for Illinois researchers hoping to convert field pennycress, which grows in cold months and is harvested in the spring, from weed to “wonder fuel.”

Earlier this year, Peoria-based Biofuels Manufacturers of Illinois, LLC (BMI) signed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to conduct lab and field trials aimed at “teasing out” pennycress production characteristics, in relation to both a cultivated crop and a biodiesel feedstock.

“It’s a two-year agreement,” said BMI president and CEO Sudhir Seth. “This year we are growing close to 100 acres mostly in Peoria County, but also some in McLean, Tazewell and Marshall counties, so it is all distributed.”

Seth said when the crops are harvested in the spring, oil will be extracted by scientists for conversion to biodiesel. Most of the 100 acres will be raised for seeds to supply a much larger test crop in 2010, however.

“This crop is primarily intended for seed,” Seth said. “We’ll be planting thousands of acres next year out of the seeds we produce.”

A team of scientists led by Terry Isbell have been studying pennycress for use in biodiesel and other products at Peoria’s USDA research lab since 2006. Tests on fields in Peoria County have shown pennycress can yield between 1,500-2,000 pounds of seed per acre, potentially translating to 75-100 gallons of biodiesel, according to the ARS.

Once oil is extracted from pennycress seeds, a chemical reaction called transesterification is used to produce biodiesel and glycerin for use in soaps, lotions and other skin care products. Under the CRADA, the refined biodiesel produced by BMI will be tested in accordance with industry performance standards to determine pennycress’ viability as a biofuel plant of the future.

Midwest farmers are showing interest in pennycress research because the plant’s spring harvest date would allow producers to double-crop their fields with corn or late soybeans. Researchers will also look at the makeup of the refinement process’s seed meal byproduct under the CRADA.

“It will be sometime in the middle of 2010” before any conclusions are reached from the study, according to Seth.

BMI operates a 45 million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant in Peoria County and has a strategic partnership with farmer-owned cooperative Growmark to purchase and market all of the biodiesel BMI produces. More on the pennycress project can be found at www.growpennycress.com