A new Minnesota cover crop could help make air travel greener, UMN St. Paul researchers say
The agency has announced that it will fund a $75,000 grant for the University of Minnesota's Forever Green Initiative for an independent study on how the state can scale up to 1 million acres of winter camelina, MPCA commissioner Katrina Kessler said Tuesday at the university's crop research fields in Falcon Heights.
'I think this is a great opportunity to support rural Minnesota, rural communities, farmers who want to innovate – and decarbonize the airline industry to help us meet our goals around getting to carbon neutral in 2050 as a state,' Kessler said.
Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is fuel made from non-petroleum sources blended with traditional jet fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It can reduce aviation emissions by up to 94%, according to the MPCA.
Winter camelina has a high oil content and a low carbon intensity score, which makes it beneficial for sustainable aviation fuel, according to the MPCA. The crop also helps to improve soil health and water quality. Additionally, it can be used to create animal feed, food and bioplastic, according to Forever Green Initiative co-director Dr. Mitch Hunter.
'Right now, we don't have a pipeline, so to speak, built to take on farm production and turn it into fuel,' Hunter said. 'The study that we're launching will lay out the steps that we need to take to get there.'
In September 2024, Delta Air Lines used SAF derived in part from winter camelina to fuel a flight from Minneapolis to New York. The demonstration flight was the first out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to use SAF.
Every winter, about 17 million acres of cropland in Minnesota has nothing growing on it, according to Hunter. He said these cold months are a missed opportunity for farmers to grow crops like winter camelina, which is planted in the fall and harvested in the spring.
'If we can put productive, profitable crops on those acres that can protect the soil and give farmers something to harvest, we can make progress on improving farm economics, improving water quality and protecting the soil that we depend on for growing food today and for future generations,' Hunter said.
Close to 5000 acres of the crop were planted in the upper Midwest in the fall of 2024, according to Hunter, but the goal for Minnesota alone is to cover 1 million acres.
'We have an ambitious goal, which is to have 1 million acres of winter camelina in the upper Midwest by 2035,' Hunter said. 'We will really have to pull out all the stops to get to that goal, but we have a big, committed coalition of supporters who are all behind us in that goal, and that gives me hope that we can get there.'
The university and MPCA are encouraging farmers to consider growing winter camelina to help drive the demand for climate-smart crops.
Ben Penner, a farmer from Mankato, said that in 2024, Penner Farms planted close to 150 acres of winter camelina.
Penner said there hasn't been a crop to hit the market to help with fuel emissions like winter camelina and its relatives, since soybeans, which grows in the summer months and can also be used for sustainable aviation fuel. The potential for a crop like winter camelina is there, he said, but it's new and that means there's still a lot to learn.
'The demand is there, and it is a fuel pathway that will grow,' Penner said. 'What I tell farmers is, 'Let's learn everything we can now so that when that market comes fully online, then we'll be able to partake in the market rather than watch someone else do it.''
Along with soybeans and winter camelina, other crops that can be used as SAF feedstock include pennycress, woody biomass and corn, according to the MPCA.
'The journey that soybeans were on 80 years ago is the journey we're on with winter camelina; taking a promising plant and turning it into a high-performing crop,' Hunter said.
According to the MPCA, Gov. Tim Walz's 2025 budget includes $20 million over the next 10 years for tax credits to promote SAF production in Minnesota. In 2025, the state will also complete a roadmap for SAF industry development and regulation.
'This is part of our whole government approach around climate change,' Kessler said. 'We need to be doing whatever we can across the state, across all of our economic sectors to reduce greenhouse gases.'
Kessler and Hunter acknowledged that many environmental organizations and efforts have experienced federal funding cuts under the Trump administration and are unsure whether this will impact their plans.
'We were selected for a $10 million grant from the Department of Energy, which would greatly further our research on camelina and pennycress, and we understand that that grant is currently under review by the new administration,' Hunter said.
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Despite the uncertainty, Kessler and Hunter said the state remains committed to supporting this initiative.
'We remain hopeful that it will come through, and in the meantime, we are extra thankful for the support of all of these partners who can continue the work while we wait,' Hunter said.
The Forever Green Initiative is partnering with Greater MSP's MBOLD coalition and SAF Hub, Friends of the Mississippi River, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the McKnight Foundation, MPCA and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to conduct the study and fund the total cost of the research, which is between $250,000 to $500,000, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
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