Title: False flax (Camelina sativa L.) as an alternative source for biodiesel production
Abstract: The current study hypothesizes that false flax (Camelina sativa L.), as a high-value biofuel feedstock, could be grown under humid conditions of western Lithuania and that nitrogen fertilisation could influence its seed yield and oil content.The following objectives were pursued: 1) to determine the optimum nitrogen fertiliser rate for winter (N 0 , N 50 , N 100 , N 150 ) and summer (N 0 , N 30 , N 60 , N 90 , N 120 ) types of false flax, 2) to estimate false flax seed oil content, its composition and feasibility to use it for the production of biodiesel fuel.The experiments were conducted in 2008-2011 at the Vėžaičiai Branch of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry.It was revealed that the highest (1.28 t ha -1 , in 2010) and (1.29 t ha -1 , in 2011) as well as cost-efficient summer false flax seed yield was produced having fertilised with 90 kg ha -1 of nitrogen.Significantly highest (1.2 t ha -1 , in 2011 and 1.6 t ha -1 , in 2010) winter false flax seed yield was obtained having fertilised with N 100 .In our study, the seed oil content of summer false flax amounted to 40.3% and that of winter false flax was lower -37.0%.Nitrogen fertilisation (N 150 and N 120 ) increased protein content in winter false flax seed from 22.98% to 26.97% and in summer false flax seed from 20.53% to 23.23% and did not reduce seed oil content.Methyl esters of false flax oil have a high iodine value and an especially high content of polyunsaturated linolenic acid: it reached 38.2% in winter false flax oil and 34.3% in summer false flax oil.Therefore false flax methyl esters can be used as fuel for diesel engines only in mixtures containing 40-50% of methyl esters of animal origin (used frying oil or pork lard).The most effective antioxidant Ionol BF200 (optimal dosage -500 ppm) as well as the most effective depressants Wintron XC-30 (optimal dosage -1500 ppm) and Infineum R-442 (optimal dosage -1200 ppm) were selected for improvement of oxidation stability and cold flow properties of esters.