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Two biofuel refineries in Oregon are planned to increase production as part of federal efforts to develop renewable energy crops, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced Tuesday.

Portland-based Beaver Biodiesel and聽 Colorado-based ZeaChem would both receive more crops as sponsors of new project areas in the federal . The program has four new project areas with a combined $45 million for renewable energy crops. The new project areas include farmland set aside for crops in Oregon, California, Kansas, Montana and Oklahoma.

In Beaver Biodiesel’s project area, farmers will be given subsidies to grow camelina, an oil seed that can be used to create a jet fuel substitute. Beaver Biodiesel will refine the camelina at its refinery in Albany, though it will make biodiesel, not jet fuel. Another project area sponsored by AltAir Fuels of Seattle will also focus on camelina. The two camelina project areas include two other refineries, one in Bakersfield, Calif., and one in Tacoma, Wash., and 51,000 acres for crops spread among the three refineries.

In the other Oregon project area, GreenWood Resources will grow 7,000 acres of hybrid poplar trees that will go to a cellulosic refinery ZeaChem is building in Boardman. The fourth project area will focus on growing 20,000 acres of switchgrass in Kansas and Oklahoma.

The federal program has $45 million in subsidies for those who grow the crops in the four new project areas. Annual payments may be made for up to five years for grasses and up to 15 years for woody plants.

The funding will help Beaver Biodiesel increase its production, which is currently about one million gallons per year, according to principal manager Daniel Shafer. The main constraint on the biodiesel industry in the Northwest is the availability of affordable feedstock, he said.

鈥淭he farmers are making more money on wheat than anything, so even though introducing a rotation crop increases yield, they are reluctant to ever not grow wheat,鈥� Shafer said. 鈥淪o the Biomass Crop Assistance Program really supports good agricultural practice.鈥�

Camelina was only introduced into the U.S. about five years ago, so the market is not well established. Beaver Biodiesel contracts directly with local farmers, and Shafer hopes the subsidies from the federal government will help support the farmers’ economics in producing camelina, which then will provide more vegetable oil to convert into biodiesel.