Mustard is ideally suited for the manufacture of biodiesel, an Agriculture Canada researcher says.
But the idea isn’t exactly setting mustard growers’ hearts aflutter.
“It would certainly be a low priority for us,” said Brett Meinert, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Mustard Growers.
The prices that are talked about for the biodiesel market are “pretty disappointing,” he said in an interview after hearing a presentation on biodiesel at the association’s annual meeting.
Research studies presented at the meeting on the use of mustard oil in biodiesel were based on a mustard price of 10 cents a pound.
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Meinert said the only possible interest he can see among growers would be to use the biodiesel market as a place to dispose of poor-quality mustard that can find no other home.
“I would see it as a very occasional market, as an alternative place to put the really poor-quality stuff,” he said, such as badly weathered or sprouted seed or a crop infested with cowcockle or buckwheat.
That could change if the demand for biodiesel significantly increased and prices rose.
Biodiesel, which is fuel made from plant oil or animal fat, increases lubricity and improves engine performance while providing cleaner emissions and other environmental benefits. It is generally produced as a five percent blend with regular diesel.
Research indicates that in small amounts, it reduces engine wear by up to 50 percent and improves fuel consumption by three to seven percent in city driving.
Biodiesel is produced in Foam Lake, Sask., by Milligan Bio-Tech Inc. using canola oil.
Milligan spokesperson Rob McGregor said the company has focused on canola for technical reasons.
“We know we can use mustard, soybeans, sunflowers or whatever, but the research done so far tells us that canola, for whatever reason, makes the best biodiesel,” he said.
There are also the obvious advantages of price and supply, since canola is so widely grown across Western Canada compared to alternative crops.
“We realize mustard may have potential down the road, but we want to make sure we get this down pat,” he said.
Martin Reaney, an Agriculture Canada researcher who has worked on biodiesel, said mustard oil is ideal for making a number of industrial products, including biodiesel.
One of the big issues would be developing a market for the mustard meal produced as a byproduct after the oil is extracted from the seed.
Mustard meal is high in glucosinolate, the ingredient that gives its distinctive hot flavour, but also makes it unusable as a livestock feed.
However, Reaney said research in the U.S. has indicated that mustard meal can be used as a soil fumigant, pesticide and fertilizer.
“So that gives you a value-added by-product material that does not detract from existing mustard markets or compete with canola markets,” he said.
While mustard is not used in commercial biodiesel production anywhere in the world, its use is being seriously investigated in the United States.
Given the potential market for biodiesel, Reaney is encouraging plant breeders in Canada to seriously consider the development of mustard varieties specifically tailored to the industrial oil market.
