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Evogene Biofuel program is aimed at utilizing the company's advanced plant improvement capabilities and assets to develop optimized feedstock to address the dire need for sustainable biofuels. The program is primarily focusing at developing improved castor bean varieties that can serve as an efficient and economically viable oil source for the industry.
Castor bean (Ricinus communis) is a high oil-yielding, non-edible crop, with high tolerability for growth under harsh environmental conditions (such as low rainfall, heat etc.). Castor is produced in more than 30 countries around the world, for over 700 industrial uses of its rich oil, such as chemicals, lubricants, medications and cosmetics.
Castor crop characteristics make it an interesting candidate to become a viable large scale commercial crop; however, today, castor worldwide supply is relatively limited - annual production of approximately 600 million liters of oil, its productivity is low and it is being poorly cultivated (still traditionally grown and handpicked).
Castor was recognized by Evogene as a promising candidate to apply its proprietary tools for crop enhancement. Evogene’s multiyear program was initiated in 2007, aimed at realizing the potential of castor through transforming castor into a modern, fully mechanized crop that would display high productivity when grown on semi-arid lands. The program aims at production costs of $400 per ton oil, equivalent to $45 per barrel on widely available semi-arid lands – focusing today on northeast Brazil and south Texas.
Evogene is implementing an integrated approach, combining advanced breeding technologies to develop improved castor varieties and agro-techniques to develop modern growth protocols.
Evogene is currently running a third consecutive year of field trial in the semi arid lands of south Israel to test the performance of its castor varieties. In addition, Evogene has established a field trial in south Texas in collaboration with Texas A&M University and is currently establishing infrastructure for conducting field trials in northeast Brazil.
Evogene's Castor field trial in the south of Israel
Through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), conducted to evaluate the sustainability of Evogene's being developed castor varieties, Evogene assessed the environmental impact of biodiesel produced from such castor as compared to conventional petroleum diesel and biodiesel originating from soybean. Study results show that biodiesel based on Evogene's castor reduces net Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions by 90% in U.S. and more than 75% in Brazil compared with conventional diesel. In addition, such biodiesel exceeds the GHG savings achieved with soybean biodiesel, with reductions for U.S. of 43% compared to soybean.
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