US agricultural bioscience company Yield10 Bioscience and Japanese trading giant Mitsubishi have signed an agreement to look into setting up a camelina biofuel feedstock partnership.
The deal followed an announcement by Mitsubishi that it planned to mass produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU), the companies would jointly conduct a feasibility study into the supply and offtake of camelina oil from camelina using Yield10’s proprietary camelina seed genetics to supply oil for the SAF market, Yield10 said on 11 January.
“Yield10 and Mitsubishi are aligned on the sustainability benefits that the camelina crop could bring to the transportation fuels market,” Yield10 Bioscience president and CEO Oliver Peoples said.
In addition, Yield10 said the companies planned to jointly study the development and future offtake and marketing of PHA bioplastic directly produced in camelina by Yield10 as an added value co-product with oil for biofuels.
The MOU is non-binding and expires at the end of this year.
Woburn-headquartered Yield10 develops crop systems and uses its ‘Trait Factory’ and its camelina ‘Fast Field Testing’ system to develop seed traits for the agriculture and food industries.
The company is pursuing a partnering approach with major agricultural companies to drive new traits into development for canola, soyabean, corn and other crops.
