These last two weeks or so have been pretty hectic here with the ELGI Annual Meeting in Gothenburg and the AXEL tour which we offered to the ELGI delegates. Considering the fact that we are supposed to be in an economic recession, a turnout of 230 for the ELGI meeting must be seen as a huge success. And we never expected anywhere close to 100 people (plus a "waiting list"!) to turn up for our plant tour. In addition, the weather Gods were good to us once again with sunshine and blue skies most of the time. Gothenburg became "global" some years ago when we had the privilege of arranging the World Championship in Athletics. The winner of the Marathon was from Spain and he said that he has never run in such extreme (hot) conditions. A newspaper in Brazil recommended Sweden as the perfect holiday resort with the comment "but don't go there in summer, it's much too hot".

So where is this bright and sunny place, the village of Nol where AXEL has its Swedish operation? We're on the top of the World. Forget your flat atlas with the usual Mercator projection of the World. Have a look at a globe instead. We're on the 58^th latitude and there's not that much "up" here. But for the North Atlantic Drift (often erroneously called the "Gulf Stream"), we wouldn't be able to live here. So, who else is up here? On the 58^th latitude in North America, you find places like Katmai National Park, Alaska, Lake Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan, Churchill Manitoba on the shores of Hudson Bay and Nutac on the coast of northern Labrador. On the 58^th latitude in Asia, there are places like Lesosibirsk Siberia and Rusakovo Kamtjatka, a port on the Bering Sea. In the Southern hemisphere, there is "nothing" down there apart from the Antarctic. The infamous Cape Horn is at about 55 degrees south. Cape Agulhas, at the southern tip of Africa is on the 35^th latitude which, in a European context would correspond to Gibraltar (paradoxically, the southern tip of Europe). So we're in quite a unique position here in Scandinavia. In a global context, some 9 million souls live north of the 60^th latitude, 8 million in Scandinavia (5 million in Finland). The rest can be found in northern Alaska, the North West Territories of Canada, Greenland, Iceland and on the coastal strip of Siberia (yes, strip, have a look at your globe). And whether or not they "live" there is a completely different question. I think they are all "looking for something".

So those of you who were here last week can vouch for the beautiful climate here, way up north. You others are welcome to come and experience it for yourselves.

"We're on the Top of the World looking down on Creation ...."

 Posted 08.05.2009

ICON is a world-wide biotechnology project for the development of plant oils for lubricants. At the recent ELGI meeting here in Gothenburg, this was the subject of a presentation by Professor Sten Stymne from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. We at AXEL are one of the participants and we find it both interesting and exciting to be part of this pioneering project with a mission to replace 60% of fossil oils used in the chemical industry with plant oils by the year 2028.

Oil seeds are, in fact, the perfect chemical factory. Petro chemistry involves first cracking carbon chains and then rebuilding them using advanced organic chemistry. This usually requires more energy than the product actually contains. On the other hand, plants can design complex products directly in the seeds without extra cost and energy thereby minimising downstream processing costs. Plant oils have therefore huge competitive advantages compared to fossil oils if their chemical structures can be optimized for the end use.

One naturally occurring product with excellent lubrication properties is sperm oil and this was widely used for many years in additive packages for gear oils and greases. Sperm oil contains a high percentage of wax esters and they are much more resistant to hydrolysis than triglycerides. For obvious reasons, this is no longer available and the only plant oil containing similar esters is jojoba which unfortunately is far too expensive for use in industrial lubricants. One of the goals of ICON is therefore to produce different kinds of wax esters from oil crops such as crambe abbysinica. The target quality should have a high oxidation stability and a low melting point. By combining various fatty acid modifying genes, a large number of wax esters with different combinations can be prepared. Small samples are expected to be available for testing in the near future.

For a whole multitude of reasons, the grease plant of the future may well be a plant. And the dominant players in the lubricants industry might be the farmers' cooperatives rather than the oil companies. But wait a minute; didn't I predict this already last century? ("What's the Po'int", Eurogrease May/June 1998).

So go ahead, plan(t) for the future. Plant your plant.

 Posted 11.05.2009