[Pil-pc-oceania] Start-up for waste-into-fuel project (courtesy Farmonline)

[Deb Guildner]

      Breaking Rural News : AGRIBUSINESS AND GENERAL

     Dec 17 Start-up for waste-into-fuel project
      By SHAN GOODWIN - Australia
      Friday, 23 November 2007

      World-first technology allowing ethanol to be produced from 
agricultural industry waste products is being trialled in north-eastern NSW 
in a project being hailed as the solution to the 'fuel-versus-food' debate.
      This week, The Land newspapper updated its earlier report on progress 
with the venture.

      Ethanol will be made from woody plants which contain lignin and 
cellulose, such as timber milling residue, cane bagasse (waste from sugar 
production) and crop stubble, providing not only a transport fuel that is 
90pc more effective than petrol in reducing greenhouse gases but a 
significant opportunity for primary production industries to value-add.

      The use of the waste or surplus materials to produce fuel will also 
take the pressure off conflicting demand for grain and cane crops to produce 
food and fibre.

      Construction of a pilot lignocellulosic plant at Harwood Island, near 
Maclean, has started.

      Processing is due to kick off on December 17.

      The operation is being run by Australian biofuel company, Ethanol 
Technologies Limited, or Ethtec, which has the rights to commercialise a 
cutting-edge technology developed and proven at the laboratory stage by 
Australian and US researchers.

      The process uses hydrolysis to convert the hemicellulose and cellulose 
components of the fibre to sugars, which already have markets such as 
bioplastics.

      The sugar solution is then fermented with the resulting ethanol stream 
concentrated via distillation.

      The new technology allows for simultaneous ethanol recovery and liquid 
waste treatment, significantly reducing the environmental impact of ethanol 
distilleries.

      Ethtec company director, Robert Carey, said the process would be 
tested extensively at the Harwood plant during the next year, and if 
successful on a commercial scale, would have immediate application 
world-wide in ethanol distilleries utilising traditional sugar, corn or 
starch feedstocks.

      "This is a world-wide race and if we can win it, the result will be 
Australian technology being exported on a large scale," he said.

      "The commercialisation process is about ensuring we can get the same 
economies of scale in the real world as have been achieved in the 
laboratory."

      There are now more than 300 ethanol distilleries around the world 
either in operation or in the final stages of construction, with about 50 
billion litres of ethanol produced globally.

      The new northern NSW project, on land provided by the NSW Sugar 
Milling Co-operative, has good access to cane bagasse and timber residue 
from the sugar and timber industries dominant in the Clarence Valley.

      "The use of waste materials from these and other cropping industries, 
which otherwise would have no market, has huge implications for 
agriculture,î Mr Carey said.

      In the State's South East, Bombala-based softwood company, Willmott 
Forests, which this year bought a 51pc shareholding in Ethtec for $2.75 
million, is confident the technology will provide big opportunities to add 
value to traditionally lower value wood products.

      Willmott chief executive officer, Marcus Derham, said the project had 
the potential to change the structure and pricing of pulp, chip and mill 
residue markets across the whole forestry industry.

      And the project has also received an election campaign boost, with 
Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, promising a re-elected Coalition 
Government would hand over $5 million to assist the pilot plant.

      SOURCE: The Land, NSW, November 22.


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