Mean Green

Great strides are being made in the biofuel industry with a very exciting development in Australia in the search for a viable second generation solution with a biocrude that has been produced from green waste and paper.

The development of an extremely stable biocrude by the CSIRO and Monash University in Australia by using green waste such as forest thinnings, household waste and crop residues has made the prospect of biofuel production that significantly reduces carbon emissions possible. Dr Steven Loffler of CSIRO Forest Biosciences says, “the oil that we’ve made is both stable and also PH neutral, so the advantage of that is that it can be held in storage for as long as it needs to before further processing”.

The plant wastes being targeted for conversion into biofuels contain chemicals known as lignocellulose, which is increasingly favoured around the world as a raw material for the next generation of bio-ethanol as they are renewable and potentially greenhouse gas neutral. Materials such as lawn clippings, tree trimmings and other materials that households already put in their green bins for removal by local councils. When you consider that these wastes are already being collected on a weekly or fortnightly basis, then the fact that they will not end up as landfill is an immediate bonus. Currently there is between 1 and 2 million tonnes going into landfill in Australia alone.

The first generation biofuels come with so many negatives with destructive rainforest clearing and long distance haulage threaten to prove more harmful than the fuel they’re replacing. Biocrude production addresses many of these problems.

The plan is to operate from small regional facilities close to the source of the bio-material converting it into the crude oil and then shipping the crude which would be much more efficient and would produce much less greenhouse gas emissions than moving the bulkier solid material to a large central facility.

It’s still very early days in this process and one of the unanswered questions that will be a huge factor towards the success or failure of the project is how much the biocrude will cost to produce. At this stage no cost analysis has been performed although Dr Loffler believes that it will at least be as competitive as current crude production.

The prospects look very promising for the creation of a greenhouse gas friendly biofuel as long as the creation of local refining facilities acutally become reality.