Mission:
The Bio-Oils Research Unit (BOR) identifies and develops new concepts and new industrial products and processes in utilizing commodity crops (soybean) and new crops (industrial hemp, lesquerella, pennycress, cuphea, and coriander, as well as genetically engineered traditional crops) that are technically and economically competitive with existing commercial petroleum-derived materials. The unit conducts fundamental and applied research with the goal of developing new crops, expanding domestic commodity crop use and export markets for American agricultural materials. Research includes organic, physical, polymer, analytical, catalyst, and lubrication chemistry, as well as chemical engineering to understand and/or modify chemical and physical properties of vegetable oils to develop enhanced additives for fuels and lubricants, or major components of fuels (biodiesel), metalworking fluids, lubricants, polymers, detergents, paints, inks, composites, and other industrial materials.