Projects

ICON

project name: Industrial Crops producing added value Oils for Novel chemicals

Framework Programme: FP7 programme area: KBBE – Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology contract type: CP-IP – Collaborative Integrated Project

contract/proposal/call number: 211400

status: active

start date: March 2008 duration: 48 months projected finish date: March 2012

Keywords

keywords: Crambe abbysinica; Brassica carinata; wax esters; plant lipid biotechnology

Project Budget

total budget: € 10,774,424

Participants

Note that the follow people may not represent the full extent of the consortium. FEAST has tried to identify the Australian participants, and their collaborators (or coordinator), within the project. Also note that Australian participation may not necessarily be on a formal level.

name	organisation	state or country
Prof Sten Stymne	SLU	Sweden
Dr Allan Green	CSIRO	ACT, Australia
Dr Knut WÅLSTEDT	SLU	Sweden

Further information

summary:
Replacing fossil oil with renewable resources is perhaps the most urgent need and the most challenging task that human society faces today. Cracking fossil hydrocarbons and building the desired chemicals with advanced organic chemistry usually requires many times more energy than is contained in the final product. Thus, using plant material in the chemical industry does not only replace the fossil material contained in the final product but also save substantial energy in the processing. Of particular interest are seed oils which show a great variation in their composition between different plant species. Many of the oil qualities found in wild species would be very attractive for the chemical industry if they could be obtained at moderate costs in bulk quantities and with a secure supply. Genetic engineering of vegetable oil qualities in high yielding oil crops could in a relatively short time frame yield such products. This project aims at developing such added value oils in dedicated industrial oil crops mainly in form of various wax esters particularly suited for lubrication.

Participants
AXEL CHRISTIERNSSON INTERNATIONAL AKTIEBOLAG SWEDEN
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA
RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAET BONN GERMANY
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH CANADA
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA CANADA
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY UNITED STATES
ROTHAMSTED RESEARCH LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM
UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN CANADA
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE UNITED STATES
CARLETON UNIVERSITY CANADA
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA’S PLANT BIOTECHNICAL INSTITUTE CANADA
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNITED STATES
DONALD DANFORD PLANT SCIENCE CENTER UNITED STATES
HUBEI UNIVERSITY CHINA
BAYER BIOSCIENCE NV BELGIUM
RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN GERMANY
PLANT RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL B.V. NETHERLANDS
COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION AUSTRALIA
THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK UNITED KINGDOM
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS) FRANCE
GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAET GOETTINGEN STIFTUNG OEFFENTLICHEN RECHTS GERMANY
UNIWERSYTET GDANSKI POLAND

Source: Cordis

ICON: Industrial Crops Producing Added Value Oils for Novel Chemicals
Vegetable oil is the agricultural product that chemically most resembles fossil oil and therefore has great potential to replace it both for fuel and for production of various chemicals and materials. Cracking fossil hydrocarbons and building the desired chemicals with advanced organic chemistry usually requires many times more energy than is contained in the final product. Thus, using plant material in the chemical industry does not only replace the fossil material contained in the final product but also save substantial energy in the processing. EC FP7 project ICON brings together the most prominent scientists in plant lipid biotechnology in an unprecedented world-wide effort, in order to produce added value oils for lubrication purposes in dedicated industrial oil crops within the time frame of four years. ICON will also develop a tool box of genes and understanding of lipid cellular metabolism in order for rational designing of vast array of industrial oil qualities in oil crops. The project has 12 partners from EU, six from Canada, four from USA, one from Australia and one from China. The strong Canadian participation in ICON is a reflection of Canada’s world leading position in plant lipid biotechnology as well as the close personal and scientific contacts between EU and Canadian scientists. Resources allocated to formalize and facilitate coordination between EU and Canadian research projects in this area can be expected to lead to substantial synergistic effects. Therefore, ICON has set off 1% of its EC contribution to such co-operative activities.

http://www.agwest.sk.ca/events/plantbio-oils08/plant-bio-industrial-oils_workshop08.htm

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