This Plant Fuels ANY Diesel Engine. The Navy Flew Supersonic On It. Big Oil Buried The Knowledge.

What is Camelina?

In the summer of 2012, a United States Navy aircraft carrier group crossed the Pacific Ocean. The ships burned no petroleum. The jets flew no petroleum. An F/A-18 Super Hornet broke the sound barrier over the Hawaiian Islands on a fuel pressed from the seeds of a plant that farmers in Bronze Age Europe had grown to light their lamps.

This is camelina (Camelina sativa), historically called Gold-of-Pleasure. A small plant, 3 feet tall, pale yellow flowers, and a 90-day growing season. It needs no irrigation, no fertilizer, and grows on soil too thin and cold for wheat. Its seeds contain up to 42% oil by weight, a concentration so high that a single acre could press out enough fuel to light an entire village through winter.

The Pentagon spent 10 years proving it could replace petroleum. Then oil prices fell, and the knowledge was filed away in military logistics reports most Americans will never read.

4,000 Years as Europe's Lamp Oil

Archaeologists excavating a Neolithic settlement near Auvernier, Switzerland found tiny, pale, oil-rich seeds in a sealed clay vessel dated to 2200 BC. Stored deliberately, apart from grain. In later Iron Age sites across northern Greece, Romania, and the steppes of Ukraine, the same pattern repeats. Camelina seeds stored separately, never mixed with grain. The people who grew it understood it was different from food crops. They pressed it into oil. They burned that oil in stone lamps to push back the dark.

For 4,000 years, camelina was Europe's lamp oil. Every lamp in every farmhouse from Finland to Romania burned it. Farmers called it Gold-of-Pleasure. It needed no irrigation, no fertilizer, grew on soil too thin and cold for wheat, and matured so fast it could be harvested before midsummer and the land planted again.

Then petroleum arrived. By the 1940s, European production had steeply declined. Post-WWII agricultural subsidy programs in Germany, France, and Britain were specifically designed around a small number of standardized commodity crops. Canola and rapeseed received government support prices. Camelina received nothing. By 1960, it had essentially vanished from commercial agriculture across western Europe.

The Great Green Fleet

In 2003, a small agricultural company in Bozeman, Montana named Sustainable Oils started running field trials on camelina in the Northern Great Plains. The results were striking. Camelina grew on Montana's high dry plains on a single pass of spring rain. Flea beetles that devastated canola crops did not touch it. And its oil had an energy density exceptionally close to petroleum jet fuel.

In October 2009, the Navy's F414 engine was tested at Naval Air Station Patuxent River running on a 50/50 blend of camelina biofuel and conventional JP-5. The engine performed without a single modification. No degradation of power, no change in handling.

On Earth Day 2010, a Super Hornet dubbed the Green Hornet flew supersonic over the Chesapeake Bay on camelina fuel. The first supersonic flight in history on a plant-derived biofuel. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that by 2020, half of all Navy and Marine Corps energy would come from non-fossil sources.

In 2012, the USS Nimitz carrier strike group deployed to the Pacific Rim exercise off Hawaii. Surface ships ran on a 50/50 biofuel blend. Six F/A-18s from the Blue Angels demonstrated formation flying on camelina. The Blue Angels' commanding officer flew that aircraft 400 times a year. He said he felt no difference. A Michigan Technical University analysis confirmed camelina jet fuel produced 84% lower carbon emissions than petroleum across its full lifecycle.

Why It Was Buried

In 2014, global oil prices collapsed from $115 to below $50 per barrel in less than 6 months. The economics of the Navy's program instantly inverted.

Between 2005 and 2012, the American Petroleum Institute had lobbied against every federal mandate that would have required biofuel blending in aviation or military fuel. They killed proposed alternative fuel investment bills in committee. They funded studies casting doubt on biofuel scalability. When the oil price collapse came in 2014, the infrastructure that would have allowed camelina production to survive a low-oil environment did not exist. It had been prevented from existing.

The biofuel contracts were not renewed. Sustainable Oils could not sustain operations without military contracts. The Great Green Fleet became a historical footnote. A program built over 10 years and tens of millions in DARPA research funding was abandoned in 18 months.

But in 2017, a Washington University researcher named Jordan Brock traveled to the Kremenets region of Ukraine. Rural farmers were still growing camelina by hand, pressing it for oil in equipment their grandparents had used. They had never stopped. They just knew that the small yellow-flowering crop that takes 90 days has kept them fed and lit for as long as anyone can remember.

How to Grow & Press Camelina

Camelina seed is available today from small-scale suppliers in Montana and Canada. Legal in all 50 states, no permit required.

Growing

When: Plant in early spring. It germinates in soil as cold as 34°F, earlier than any other spring crop.

Soil: Grows on fallow land, poor soil, marginal ground that would otherwise produce nothing. No irrigation. No fertilizer. No pest control required.

Harvest: Matures in less than 100 days. Standard combines harvest it without modification. Farmers slot it into wheat rotation without changing equipment.

Pressing Oil

Equipment: A cold press for home-scale extraction costs $200-$400.

Yield: One acre produces 500-900 lbs of seed, yielding 20-35 gallons of oil.

Uses: The oil burns in any diesel engine, any oil lamp, any biodiesel generator without modification. It meets both American and European biodiesel standards.

Byproduct: The meal left after pressing is FDA-approved livestock feed, dense with omega-3 fatty acids and protein.

Seed Saving

Camelina seeds are open-pollinated. Save seed from your harvest, plant it next season. The cost drops to near zero after year one. The US Navy proved it works at supersonic speed. You can prove it works on a backup generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is camelina and why did the Navy use it as jet fuel?

Camelina (Camelina sativa) is an oilseed crop cultivated since 2200 BC, historically known as Gold-of-Pleasure. Its seeds contain up to 42% oil with an energy density close to petroleum jet fuel. In 2010, a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet flew supersonic on a 50/50 camelina blend. In 2012, an entire carrier strike group deployed on camelina biofuel, producing 84% lower carbon emissions.

How much fuel does one acre of camelina produce?

One acre of camelina produces 500 to 900 lbs of seed, yielding roughly 20 to 35 gallons of oil. That is enough to run a diesel backup generator for approximately 4 days at 8 hours per day. Seeds are open-pollinated, so you save seed each year and the cost drops to near zero after year one.

Can you grow camelina at home for biodiesel?

Yes. Camelina seed is legal in all 50 US states with no permit required. It germinates in soil as cold as 34 degrees F, grows in 90 days, needs no irrigation or fertilizer, and is harvested with a standard combine. A cold press for home-scale oil extraction costs $200-$400. The oil burns in any diesel engine, oil lamp, or biodiesel generator without modification.

Why did the Great Green Fleet program end?

In 2014, global oil prices crashed from $115 to below $50 per barrel. The American Petroleum Institute had spent 2005-2012 lobbying against federal biofuel mandates and killing alternative fuel investment bills. When oil prices collapsed, the infrastructure that would have sustained camelina production did not exist. Military biofuel contracts were not renewed and the program ended within 18 months.