Das Projekt "ECLAIR: Pflanzenoele fuer neue chemische Anwendungen (SONCA)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Norddeutsche Pflanzenzucht Hans Georg Lembke KG durchgeführt. The aim is to obtain essential methodological know how and basic genetic material towards the development of domestic plant resources and production of economically feasible agronomical seed oils for uses in the chemical industry. Including work on plant breeding, agronomicaltesting of novel or unconventional crops, oil extraction methods and chemotechnical evaluation of these oils by the chemical industry, this project covers the entire vegetable oil production chain. Two crop species, rapeseed (Brassica napus) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus), will be the main subjects. These represent the crops producinghighest oil yields in the northern and southern European area, respectively, and are at present almost exclusively seed oils for food uses. In order to open additional new markets for nonfood, oleochemicaluses, appropriate new varieties with additional production and/or oil qualities will be developed and tested. The particular objectives are as follows. Agronomically adapted stocks of high erucic acid rapeseed (HEAR), high oleic acid rapeseed (HOAR), high oleic acid sunflower (HOAS), and disease resistant HOAS, will be constructed and established at a scale allowing for the production of sufficient samples for work on oil extraction methods and testing the oils in the the chemical industry. In addition to these major crops for which large scale application seems to be feasible, three lesser known (unconventional) crops will beevaluated and agronomically tested (high petroselinic acid Coriander, high vernolic acid Euphorbia, and high MCFA Cuphea). High pressure extraction of sunflower oil will be tested and evaluated with regard to its influence on the industrial qualities of the oil andthe byproducts. Commercially available techniques will be used to produce the oils for testing in the chemical industry. The oils, which are provided by the participants of the project, will be evaluated withregard to their utility in the production of certain base chemicals. The base chemicals produced will be tested for the preparation of deochemical derivatives which could be the basis for surfactants and surfactant mixtures. These surfactants will be evaluated with regard totheir technical, economical and econological characteristics. A final assessment will be made of the feasibility of a novel vegetable oil chain becoming possible. The final outcome from this project is expected to be manifold but should be of interest to both farming and the chemical industry. Farmers will get information on, and seeds for, novel crops for which a market potential could be assessed. The chemical industry will get information on the potential usefulness of vegetable oils as a raw material which might open up new developments in the area of environmentally sound chemistry. ... Prime Contractor: Norddeutsche Pflanzenzucht Hans-Georg Lembke KG; Holtsee; Germany.