Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
High-oleic sunflower oil is in a particularly good position for use as a
biofuel because of its higher stability than traditional, high-linoleic sunflower
oil. In Europe, rules have been proposed to require a minimum percentage
of biofuels in transportation fuels, perhaps as much as 8% by the year 2020.
Oilseed rape (canola) and high-oleic sunflower are the two crops most likely
to serve as sources of biodiesel in Europe. Major sunflower exporting
countries, such as Argentina, are moving to increase production of high-
oleic sunflower oil for the European market.
In the US, it is unlikely that sunflower oil will be used on a large
commercial scale for biodiesel production in the near future. Commercial
biodiesel production plants in the US currently use soybean and canola as
the primary vegetable oil feedstock (National Biodiesel Board 2009), due to
the large amounts grown in North America. Sunflower oil, which sells at a
premium and is in high demand as a food oil by large snack food companies,
will likely continue to have its major role in this domestic market for the
foreseeable future. As soybean and canola oils move into the biodiesel market,
sunflower oil has the potential to gain markets formerly held by displaced
soybean and canola oils. The role of sunflower oil as a biodiesel fuel in the
US will be largely limited to on-farm production or to regional cooperatives
that have the ability to convert the oil to esters and deliver the fuel to nearby
customers.
10.5.2 Bio-pharming by Sunflower
Bio-pharming is the production of pharmaceutical products by introduction
into a host plant of a foreign gene that codes for the drug product. Sunflower
is a candidate host for producing pharmaceuticals, and compares favorably
with maize, canola, soybeans, and alfalfa for cost of production (Kusnadi et
al. 1997). Many private companies and institutions in countries around the
world have initiated development of pharmaceutical crops, but as of 2007
only a handful of proteins had been commercialized, all in the US. All were
produced in transgenic maize, tobacco, or rice (Mewett et al. 2007). In
Canadian field trials, safflower, tobacco, and canola are the most common
crops for biopharming trials, and in Europe (primarily France) tobacco and
maize have been the crops of choice (Bauer 2006). To date, sunflower has
not been chosen as a primary bio-pharming crop in any country.
Sunflower, however, has potential for bio-pharming, but it suffers from
several key environmental drawbacks, especially in the US. Transgenic
annual sunflower (GMO) pollen will cross with several annual wild
sunflower species, which are native to the US. This is of concern to many
environmentalists because of unknown consequences to the population
dynamics of wild sunflower species, or to the risks to wildlife or humans if
the seed is inadvertently introduced into the food chain. In addition,
 
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