Western Illinois University researcher scores $10 million to further study pennycress

In Illinois, Western Illinois University School of Agriculture announced that one of its professors is the recipient of a $10 million federal grant to investigate the use of the alternative crop, Pennycress, as a new cash cover crop in the Midwest.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant will allow the team to further refine Pennycress as a new winter-annual cash cover crop for use by the biofuel industry. Researchers from Illinois State University, the Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and the University of Minnesota will join the WIU team to refine this high-yield oilseed crop. The lead researcher, who has been with the School of Agriculture and the director of the School’s Alternative Crops Program since 2000, has been growing Pennycress, and investigating its uses as a biofuel alternative, for 10 years.