Next Generation biofuels project launched in Queensland
Tuesday 8 November 2011, 3:28PM
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Energy Parks Australia Pty is partnering with Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation to develop the infrastructure for energy parks to produce Next Generation biofuels from multi biomass sources.
The first site has been identified on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, while others are being researched for suitability.
Aquaflow chair Barrie Leay says wild micro algae, wood waste, bagasse and other green municipal waste can now all be converted to the next generation of biofuels, including bio-petrol, bio-diesel and jet fuel. He says the unique chemical qualities of algae can be maximised within a mix of other biomass streams.
“Aquaflow is a world leader in converting waste biomass to liquid bio-fuels. Our partnerships have included Boeing, Honeywell/UOP, CRI Catalyst company and other international companies, and we have worked with the US Departments of Energy and Department of Defence as funding agencies.”
Aquaflow has expertise in the chemistry, design and building of its own renewable bio-fuels plant, and has a collaborative agreement with CRI Catalyst relating to the use of IH2 thermal conversion of algae and other biomass to ‘drop-in fuels’.
“This multi biomass approach gives us the flexibility to develop a feedstock mix specific to available resources worldwide. We believe this is a significant advantage for algal biofuels over lipid oil extraction approaches to diesel and jet fuel.”
Queensland produces millions of tonnes of waste biomass every year from its primary production such as sugar cane and forestry, all of which can be converted to liquid fuels. Therefore Queensland’s “fuel security” can be assured well beyond ‘Peak Oil’ and create a buffer against predicted pricing increases in the future, and still have the capacity to export to other States.
Initially the partnership planned to build ‘demonstration plants’ and progressively scale up to 2000 tonne per day plants in strategic locations over the next few years, and to produce fuel at costs competitive with today’s prices.