Amy E. Hetrick, Jack Brown, Jim Davis, Lindy Seip, and Donna Brown. University of Idaho, PSES Department, Moscow, ID 83844-2339
Biodiesel is recognized as an alternative to fossil-based fuel. Brassica crop species in particular produce a higher quality fuel due to their relatively low polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids than other vegetable oil feedstocks. Low polyunsaturated fatty acids (20-26%) contents allow Brassica biofuel to have less NOx emissions and the low saturated fats (3-7%) allow for improved cold-flow properties. Development of lines with even lower polyunsaturated and saturated fats could lead to a specialty oil for biodiesel production. These traits will be explored to improve further upon the quality of Brassica biofuel by developing cultivars with anticipated lines consisting of less than 6% polyunsaturated fats and less than 2% saturated fats. A half-diallel crossing block consisting of 20 crosses from seven parents was used as a basis for the study. Half-seed analysis led to selection for desired traits (low polyunsaturated fatty acids and low saturated fatty acids) and fatty acid analysis and selection were also performed on subsequent generations, now in the F5 stage. Of the 630 half-seed progeny that were screened for fatty acid profiles, 34 (5.4%) had less than 15% total polyunsaturated fatty acid content (a combination of linoleic and linolenic acid). Two progeny were found with 6% total polyunsaturated fats in the oil. Seventeen progeny (2.7%) produced seed oil containing a combined saturated fatty acid (palmitic and stearic) contents less than 4%, some of which were lower than 3.1%. Fatty acid analyses of the selected lines showed that 5% of the F4 generation seeds had less than 20% polyunsaturated fatty acids, whereas 20% F4 generation seeds continued to have less than 4% saturated fatty acids. Even though the polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acid contents have both been decreased, more selections and analyses must be performed to further reduce the amounts of these fatty acids.
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