The processing of new oilseed crops—An economic evaluation

The economics of pilot- to large-scale processing of the new oilssed cropsCrambe abyssinica, Euphorbia lagascae, andDimorphotheca pluvialis into oil, fatty acids, or esters were estimated. It was found that the processing costs forCrambe seed to oil is in the same range as that for rapeseed (≈0.5 U.S. $/kg). Production of fatty acid esters from vernolic and dimorphecolic acids requires some special downstream processing operations that result in processing costs of about 1 U.S. $/kg ester. Good-qualityDimorphotheca oil is much more difficult to obtain and requires supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Processing costs can be as high as 4 U.S. $/kg oil.