Montana State University has received money from the U.S. Department of Energy to study camelina. | Canva
Montana State University has received money from the U.S. Department of Energy to study camelina. | Canva
Montana State University's (MSU) College of Agriculture received $5.1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a research team that is exploring camelina as a possible alternative for biofuel and multi-use crop.
The research team includes Chaofu Lu, Andreas Fischer, Jennifer Lachowiec and Qing Yan from the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology; Chengci Chen of MSU's Eastern Agricultural Research Center; and Jed Eberly from the Central Agricultural Research Center, Montana State University reported.
Camelina is an oilseed crop that resembles canola but isn't used for food oil. The next five years will consist of MSU's team to conduct field and laboratory studies of camelina to learn about the genetic markets of the plant to help reveal the most favorable outcome in the breeding process.
“Our job is to find some preliminary resources and learn more about camelina as a potential crop,” Lu said. “This is a very large project that would be unthinkable to do by myself. That’s why it’s great to work with a team of my colleagues here at MSU and across the nation. All of these people are really good in their specific fields.”
Alerts Sign-up