Reducing the carbon footprint of the lubricants industry by the substitution of mineral oil with rapeseed

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The purpose of the project is to underpin the development of oilseed rape varieties for the production of oil for use in the lubricants industry. Excessive content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in rapeseed oil produced from high-yielding winter varieties severely limits its use in all but the least stressed applications. A key knowledge gap is an understanding of how to substantially reduce oil PUFA content without reducing the oil yield of the crop. We will address this knowledge gap and enable establishment of a closed supply chain. This involves: (a) The genetic improvement of oilseed rape by mutagenesis of specific genes (orthologues of the Arabidopsis thaliana genes FAD2 and RFC4) in order to produce, from a high-yielding winter crop, oil very low in PUFAs. (b) Assessment of the physical properties of the oil produced in order to validate its utility, including an analysis of the impact of selective hydrogenation. (c) Provision of characterised oilseed rape lines to the breeding industry for the development of cultivars. (d) Catalysing assembly of a supply chain. The strategy is non-GM, so we anticipate no barriers to the widespread utilization of the resultant varieties in the UK.

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