Colza oil
Colza oil or colza is a non-drying oil obtained from the seeds of rapeseed. Colza is extensively cultivated in France, Belgium, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Poland. In France and Denmark, especially, the extraction of the oil is an important industry. In commerce, colza is a traditional rapeseed oil, to which they are very closely allied in both source and properties. It is a comparatively nonodoriferous oil of a yellow colour, having a specific gravity varying between 0.912 and 0.920. The cake left after extraction of the oil is a valuable feed ingredient for pigs.Uses
Colza oil is extensively used as a lubricant for machinery. It was widely used in European domestic lighting before the advent of coal gas or kerosene. It was the preferred oil for train pot lamps, and was used for lighting railway coaches in the United Kingdom before gas lighting, and later electric lighting, were adopted. Burned in a Carcel lamp, it was part of the definition of the French standard measure for illumination, the carcel, for most of the nineteenth century. In lighthouses, for example in early Canada, colza oil was used before the introduction of mineral oil. The colza oil was used with the Argand burner because it was cheaper than whale oil. Colza was burned to a limited extent in the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
Colza oil was used in Gombault's Caustic Balsam, a popular horse and human liniment at the turn of the 20th century.
Among the more unusual applications of colza oil is the calming of choppy seas, where the oil modifies the surface tension of the water and rapidly smooths the surface. For this purpose, colza oil was carried in ship's lifeboats.
More recently, colza has been cultivated in Europe as an ingredient for biodiesel fuels, and is the primary source of biodiesel in Germany.
Colza oil is also used as a food oil. Bornholm, Denmark is the only place to produce rapeseed oil from the seed's germ.
