Keep on Trucking with Biofuels & Waste to Ethanol

Around the world there’s an increasing use of biofuels not only to decrease emissions from transport, but also to reduce Australia’s trade deficit, improve domestic fuel security with readily available, renewable and sustainable fuels and bring about regional development opportunities around the country. So says Heather Brodie, CEO of the Biofuels Association of Australia on the launch of a biodiesel blend fuelled Volvo truck. Meanwhile, US biofuels company Coskata plans to name a Melbourne-based site for its $400 million waste-to-ethanol plant within the next few months.

Heather Brodie, CEO of the Biofuels Association of Australia, provided an update on all relevant biofuel developments in Australia at the Carbon Expo in a session on Transport Biofuels. Also on show at the Expo in Melbourne was the Volvo 13 litre truck, operating with a biodiesel blend. It was launched in Sydney a few days earlier.

Announcement (8 October 2010):

The Biofuels Association of Australia announced the launch of the BAA Volvo FH 13 litre truck by the Hon Minister Tony Kelly, NSW Minister for Planning, Infrastructure and Lands, today at the International Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, Sydney.

“The BAA is delighted that the Minister has been able to take time out of his very full schedule to promote the use of biodiesel in Australia by launching this truck on our behalf” said Heather Brodie, CEO of the Biofuels Association of Australia.

“Volvo Trucks is working with the BAA and Ron Finemore Transport to promote to the community how important it is to use increasing blends of biodiesel in our fuel mix” Ms Brodie continued. “Ron Finemore Transport has been using 20% blends of biodiesel for the last three years and has notched up more than 40 million kilometres in their fleet of trucks. This truck will be travelling the length and breadth of the east coast promoting how the average consumer can use biodiesel as well.”

“Around the world we are seeing an increasing use of biofuels not only to decrease our emissions from transport, but also to reduce our trade deficit, improve our domestic fuel security with readily available, renewable and sustainable fuels and bring about regional development opportunities around Australia”.

“Australia’s production of biofuels – both ethanol and biodiesel – continues to come predominantly from by-products and waste streams. This is a fantastic opportunity to promote the local industry and we thank Volvo, Ron Finemore Transport and the Minister for taking part in the program” Ms Brodie said.

Source: www.biofuelsassociation.com.au

Barry Park in Sydney Morning Herald (11 October 2010):

BIOFUELS company Coskata plans to name a Melbourne-based site for its $400 million waste-to-ethanol plant within the next few months.

Wes Bolsen, chief marketing officer of the US-based company that has attracted business partners including car maker GM Holden and the Victorian government, told BusinessDay he expected five potential sites to be whittled down to three within days, with a single site nominated by January.

Mr Bolsen is in Victoria to meet government and a group of companies that are helping the Illinois-based biofuel producer set up a fuel factory that can convert waste products as diverse as household food scraps and old tyres into cheap ethanol that can then be mixed with petrol and used in cars.

The Coskata plant proposed for Melbourne should be able to produce about 250 million litres of ethanol a year from the system, which Mr Bolsen said would help reduce the country’s dependence on mineral oils.

Holden has become the first car maker to offer a vehicle that can run on anything from 100 per cent petrol to E85, a mix of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol.

Mr Bolsen said ”major community engagement” would help determine which of the five sites would be the most appropriate.

”These communities are competing for jobs and growth,” Mr Bolsen said. ”We’re looking for a site around the Melbourne area, and we’ve already had interest from NSW and Queensland.”

Mr Bolsen said the Victorian biofuel plant would take up to three years to build, creating hundreds of construction jobs and ongoing employment from a waste collection process that will source feedstock for the plant within a 50-kilometre radius.

Mr Bolsen said sourcing waste material was proving an easy process, with companies already lining up to offer Coskata waste products to feed into the plant.

He said this waste would normally cost up to $150 a tonne to dispose of and that it would mostly end up as landfill.

Source: www.smh.com.au