Oil based cover crops for aviation fuel in Scotland - question and answer report

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling climate change with an ambitious target of 2045 for Scotland to reach net zero emissions for all greenhouse gases.  As part of this transition new uses need to be found for sites such as the Grangemouth refinery to secure a just transition for the local and wider Scottish population.   Project Willow: Grangemouth investment opportunities has identified a set of preferred projects including a proposed biorefinery project for aviation fuel.  The aviation sector is currently a significant greenhouse gas emitter through its use of fossil fuels (Okolie et al. 2023) thus key to the success of this option is the production of, and access to, sufficient volumes of feedstocks of bio-oil of appropriate quality with a low climate impact.  Project Willow highlighted that there is not enough waste oil to supply this need, therefore, oil-based crops would need to fill this gap in the oil supply chain.  This review is in response to a policy call-down project request in the form of a Q&A style report to answer questions on the potential for oil-based cover crops to produce bio-aviation fuel in Scotland.  Potential crops include camelina and oilseed rape (OSR), and this report includes a screen for potential alternatives. Also included is the potential of a camelina breeding programme, together with economic analysis of the competition between camelina, OSR and cereals for land.

Authors: Dr Tracy Valentine, Dr Shailesh Shrestha, Prof Fiona Burnett

Full suggested citation:

Valentine, T.A., Shrestha, S., Burnett, F., (2025). Oil based cover crops for aviation fuel in Scotland - question and answer report.  A report for the Scottish Government. James Hutton Institute/SRUC. pp25.

DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17078936