Renewable Developments Australia (RDA) is developing a fully integrated biofuel facility near the township of Charters Towers in North Queensland, Australia. The Project involves the development of a fully integrated sugarcane farming, processing and ethanol distillation facility. The Pentland Bioenergy Project is fully integrated with feedstock grown on-site and controlled within the project. Investors will have full control and visibility over the cost and quality of feedstock, materially improving investment performance and economics when compared to traditional operations. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) have provided a $3 million grant to RDA to support progression of the project to Financial Close. 28,500 hectares of high yield agricultural land approximately 50 km south-west of Charters Towers has been secured via a long-term lease for Stage 1 development. Further expansion is possible post Stage 1 with the option for second generation ethanol production and additional contiguous land secured for future stages of development. The Project intends to Extract the full value of the sugarcane’s potential, with annual production estimated to include:- Approximately 190 million litres of high grade bioethanol from first generation processing. – Approximately 700 kilo tonnes of bagasse, a by-product of the diffusion and Extraction process, used to power a 16 megawatt cogeneration plant located on site, generating valuable Large-scale Generation Certificates for sale.
The Ecotech Biodiesel production plant is located 35 kilometres north of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. The facility can produce up to 30 million litres with room for a second facility to increase production to 75 million litres. The facility has been in operation since May 2006.
Muradel is an advanced biocrude-oil production company based in Australia that utilises sustainable and renewable organic based feedstocks as a direct replacement for non-sustainable oils such as mineral crude oils and palm plantation oils. Muradel has developed a technology platform, known as Green2Black™, that can be integrated into existing wastewater treatment plants to sustainably manage sludges and biosolids. Muradel aims to provide technological solutions for sludge/biosolids management, producing marketable products including biocrude oil for the international biofuels market. The biocrude oils produced by Muradel can be fractionated into a spectrum of fuel products and petrochemicals analogous to those produced from a barrel of fossil crude, and the oleochemicals. Muradel biocrude oils are energy positive and have a reduced carbon footprint compared with traditional crude oils.
The Northern Oil Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant is an $18 million green fuel game changer being developed by Southern Oil Refining at its Northern Oil Refinery at Yarwun, near Gladstone, Queensland. The pilot plant, opened in June 2017, is using biomass material such as sugarcane bagasse and prickly acacia as feedstock for the production of bio crude oil, which will be refined into saleable kerosene and diesel products. Within three years of opening, the pilot plant aims to have produced one million litres of fuel for use in field trials by the US navy as part of its Great Green Fleet initiative, by the Australian Defence Force, by Australian heavy road transport operators and possibly for the aviation sector.
Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL)
Technology used within the Thermochemical Conversion process
Licella’s proprietary ‘catalytic hydrothermal’ technology uses water, pressure and heat to convert biomass to bio-crude oil. The biomass is made into slurry, continuously pressurised, heated, reacted and then cooled to create the bio-crude oil. The process can convert a range of feedstocks. Licella has tested wood products (eucalypt, Pinus radiata), agricultural residue (bagasse, wheat straw), grasses and algae. Unlike techniques such as pyrolysis, hydrothermal upgrading with Licella’s Cat-HTR™ platform produces a stable biocrude which can be easily shipped, is not acidic and is miscible (blendable) with conventional oil. The pilot plant, located at Somersby, north of Sydney, demonstrates the continuous-flow process from slurry preparation, pressurisation, heating and reacting through to cooling and final separation of the bio-crude oil. Heavily automated, partly for safety reasons, the pilot plant has the capacity to process 10,000 tonnes of slurried biomass per year. Supported by government funding of $5.4 million from ARENA, Licella is developing a de-risked feasibility study for a commercial plant that can handle 400,000 green tonnes of wood. The study includes selecting the plant location and the type of biomass, and signing up agreements with biomass suppliers and bio-crude buyers, essentially de-risking the business case for potential investors.
