The Camelina Story
Sustainable Oils Camelina has emerged as the crop feedstock of choice for renewable diesel production.
Renewable diesel made from Sustainable Oils Camelina is a high-demand drop-in fuel that meets all specifications for today’s engines, on par with diesel produced from petroleum.
Sustainable Oils Camelina varieties are the only camelina approved for the California LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard).
About Sustainable Oils
Sustainable Oils, LLC – the world’s leading developer of camelina – traces its camelina roots back to 2005. Today, Sustainable Oils has an industry leading portfolio of intellectual property rights, including patents and production know-how, to produce proprietary varieties of camelina as a nonfood based ultra-low carbon biofuels feedstock. Sustainable Oils is based in Great Falls, Montana.
Sustainable Oils is owned by Grapevine Energy Holdings, LLC. Through its Central Valley Renewables subsidiary, Grapevine Energy owns a renewable diesel facility in Bakersfield, California, making it the only integrated farm-to-fuel business of its kind.
Central Valley Renewables has a multi-year agreement with Vitol, a global commodity broker, to purchase up to 220 million gallons per year of renewable diesel made from various feedstocks, including camelina oil from Sustainable Oils.
Growing Demand
Growers Needed to Meet Increasing Demand
Growers in Montana, Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado planted Sustainable Oils Camelina with favorable results since 2020. We want to continue our strong relationship with current customers and contract with new growers to help grow Sustainable Oils camelina acres and increase their farms’ profitability.
Sustainable Oils will need more than a million acres of Sustainable Oils Camelina to fill the demand anticipated in the coming years. Vitol has agreed to purchase up to 220 million gallons per year of renewable diesel made from Sustainable Oils Camelina over the coming years. We are looking for innovative growers to help us meet this growing demand and to bring a clean, consistent, and profitable new industry to the High Plains and Montana.
A SUPERIOR CHOICE FOR DRYLAND ROTATIONS IN THE HIGH PLAINS AND MONTANA
Sustainable Oils Camelina is a short-season (85-110 days), drought- and frost-tolerant oilseed crop. Sustainable Oils Camelina can be planted as a summer fallow replacement crop or double-cropped with soybeans, sorghum or other summer crops to produce two crops in a single season off the same land. Sustainable Oils proprietary camelina varieties exhibit superior agronomic performance, improved seed quality and high oil content in challenging dryland growing conditions.
In dryland rotations, Sustainable Oils Camelina’s root system makes efficient use of available soil moisture. With proper management, it can average 1,000 pounds per acre and with higher rainfall amounts can yield above 1,500 pounds per acre.
Shared Risk with a Focus on Parrtnership and Profitability
Growers in many areas can now get RMA crop insurance on camelina. Interested growers should contact their local crop insurance agent to get more information. Depending on your cropping history and geography this may be a standard crop insurance policy, or a written policy. Focusing on profitability is critical to both our successes! Sustainable Oils provides the planting seed for free to all growers who contract with us. The variable cost to grow camelina is generally between $85-120 per acre, depending on the cost of nitrogen fertilizer. Camelina should generate $200-$350+ of revenue per acre depending on your yield. And that’s a healthy margin!
The Sustainable Oils team is committed to developing a long-term relationship with growers to ensure they can meet demand for renewable diesel made from camelina. They will work closely with contract growers from pre-plant through harvest to create the best possible environment for a healthy and profitable crop.