Abstract
The growing demand in food and non-food industries for camelina oil is driving the interest of farmers and contractors in investing in such feedstock. Nonetheless, the cost, performance and critical aspects related to the harvesting stage are still not properly investigated. In the present study, an ad-hoc test was performed in Spain in order to fulfill this gap. The results support the hypothesis to harvest camelina seeds with the same combine harvester used for cereal harvesting without further investment. Theoretical field capacity (TFC), effective field capacity (EFC), material capacity (MC), and field efficiency (FE) were 4.34 ha h−1, 4.22 ha h−1, 4.66 Mg h−1 FM, and 97.24%, respectively. The harvesting cost was estimated in 48.51 € ha−1. Approximately, the seed loss of 0.057 ± 0.028 Mg ha−1 FM was due to the impact of the combine harvester header and dehiscence of pods, whilst 0.036 ± 0.006 Mg ha−1 FM of seeds were lost due to inefficiency of the threshing system of the combine harvester. Adjustment of the working speed of the combine and the rotation speed of the reel may help to reduce such loss.
Highlights
The European Union is currently fostering the replacement of fossil-based products with bio-based surrogates [1,2]
Worldwide production of vegetable oil is given for 75% by few crops, such as soybean, oil palm, cottonseed, rapeseed and sunflower; while the remaining 25% is obtained from other minor oilseeds [1]
The literature still lacks the knowledge on such kind of strategy for harvesting camelina seeds, a comparison is possible relying on the findings reported in Stefanoni et al (2020) [39]
Summary
The European Union is currently fostering the replacement of fossil-based products with bio-based surrogates [1,2]. Worldwide production of vegetable oil is given for 75% by few crops, such as soybean, oil palm, cottonseed, rapeseed and sunflower; while the remaining 25% is obtained from other minor oilseeds [1]. Some of these minor oilseeds show particular features, which make them suitable in the concept of bio-economy. Asia [6], is a very promising oil crop for multiple reasons [7]. Camelina oil has multiple industrial applications, such as biodiesel and jet-fuel production, even if with some drawbacks related to cetane number, iodine value, oxidation stability and linolenic acid methyl ester content [13,14]. Camelina oil can be used in the production of Sustainability 2021, 13, 195.
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