Ethanol-blended petrol now available across NSW

Following up from the New South Wales Premier’s previous announcement that it would mandate that all unleaded fuel in NSW would contain 2 per cent ethanol, the mandate comes into force today. This mandate will increase to 10 per cent by 2011, which is suitable for almost all vehicles built after 1986 (specifically, vehicles with fuel injection).  NSW remains the first state to mandate a specific concentration of ethanol.

(Source: ABC News)

New ethanol plants to open soon

Australia looks set to have at least two new ethanol production plants opening over the next couple of years from different companies, both producing their fuel from south-east Queensland’s sweet sorghum crops.

The first, the $120 million Dalby Bio Refinery in Queensland, is expected to open in August 2008 and will be capable of producing over 90 million litres of ethanol each year. (For comparison’s sake, this refinery alone will be capable of producing 25% of the fuel required to meet Australia’s goal of 350 ML of biofuels annually by 2010.) The company has secured a contract with Caltex for “a significant portion” of its annual production, according to reports out of the Australian Ethanol and Biodiesel conference in Brisbane this week. The plant will produce ethanol from grain supplied by Graincorp.

Biofuels company AgriFuels is also planning a new ethanol production facility for south-east Queensland, this time near the town of Childers. The company is currently conducting trials of the sweet sorghum crop, and if successful, plans to rotate it with sugar cane. AgriFuels managing director Greg Lee says that sorghum can provide up to 30 per cent more ethanol than the equivalent amount of sugar cane, providing farmers with an extra source of income.

“Basically once we’ve proved this crop up and it looks okay we’ll then sit down and talk to farmers, work out how it can rotate with the sugarcane people, utilise … some of the land that’s not being used and start to develop hopefully an ethanol plant,” he said.

The plant has the support of local councils and is considered likely to go ahead.

(Sources: North Queensland Register, ABC News)

Brief hiatus for this week

Updates will be sparse for the remainder of this week while I’m travelling, however the site will be running full steam ahead next week. In the meantime, keep a close eye on the Frankfurt Auto Show (currently underway), because there’s some great ideas coming out of there: the Opel Flextreme, which is based on the same E-flex plug-in hybrid platform at the Chevrolet Volt, emits only 40g of CO2 per 100km, thanks to its diesel recharging engine; the Volvo ReCharge plug-in hybrid, with a flex-fuel engine; and the Hyundai i-Blue fuel cell concept car.

See you next week!

NSW to Howard: leave ethanol out of a trade deal

With ethanol likely to be on the table during this week’s APEC summit, NSW Regional Development Minister Tony Kelly (left) is urging Prime Minister John Howard to keep ethanol out of any potential trade deal with the US to save the burgeoning industry in Australia.

According to Mr Kelly, jobs in the biofuels industry could be jeopardized if ethanol imports from the US increased. The industry “helps sustain employees that are involved at plants at Gunnedah, Narrandera and the township of Manildra itself, as well as Nowra,” he said.

“That just shows you how the ethanol industry can create an enormous number of jobs in rural and regional NSW, and how that can come under threat if we do some deal with America.”

Mr Kelly also pointed out the environmental benefits of Australian ethanol, primarily from sugarcane and wheat, over its US counterpart which is made from corn.

“The ethanol that’s produced by the Manildra Group at Nowra is much better for the environment than biofuels or ethanol that’s produced by corn in the US because what the Manildra Group use is the wheat starch waste and that leads to some 37 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

(Source: ABC News)

Biofuel industry to double in 2008

The future of the Australian biofuel industry is looking brighter, with the total production level expected to double to 600 megalitres in 2008, well in excess of the Federal government’s 2010 target of 350 ML.

APAC Biofuels, an industry consultant, released the predictions this week to the Advanced Global Biofuel Summit in Bangkok, also states that production in Australia could exceed 1000 ML by 2010. 

Other key points of the report:

• Producers may have trouble competing “in the lower value energy market with higher value food commodities”
• Drought, consumer acceptance and quality are limiting a higher production of biofuels
• Tallow and waste oil are likely to play a much larger role in Australian biodiesel
• Falling feedstock prices are the main driver for increased production of both ethanol and biodiesel.

(Sources: ABC News, The Australian)

Will Australia import more efficient technology?

While pressure mounts considerably for auto companies in the US to clean up their act, and an impressive range of new technologies make their way on to the market to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, there is still some question about whether or not these innovations will find their way into Australian cars.

General Motors, the US owner of Holden, has recently announced a wide range of fuel-saving innovations to their vehicles, ranging from hybrid powertrains to diesels, direct injection engines and cylinder deactivation. Some models released under the Holden badge in Australia even have hybrid counterparts in the United States, such as the Saturn Vue (known as the Captiva MaXX here). However, despite a recent shift in focus within Holden towards being part of the global GM group rather than considering itself a separate entity, the Melbourne-based car manufacturer has made no suggestions one way or another about importing some of GM’s technology for use in its Australian-made or imported vehicles. Spokesman John Lindsay admitted to the existence of “some (VE Commodore) mules running around with hybrid systems in them”, but said that there are no plans to bring a hybrid Commodore to production at this stage. Similarly there seems to be no move to use more conventional engine technology such as direct injection in their Australian-built engines, let alone much hope for radical projects such as the Chevy Volt to make their way to our shores. Paradoxically, Holden exports a version of the Commodore Omega that is capable of using a 24% ethanol blend to Brazil (under the Chevrolet brand), but will not endorse the use of ethanol concentrations above 10% for its Australian vehicles.

The situation seems paralleled at Ford, with the US branch currently looking into longer-term solutions such as hydrogen-hybrid Focus and HySeries experimental vehicles, as well as an existing range of ethanol-capable and hybrid vehicles and powertrain developments such as continuously variable transmission.  Ford Motor Company Australia recently made the tough decision to close its production of the “Barra” engine at Geelong in favour of importing the more efficient Duratec engine from Detroit, which is a significant move for the industry, however the company has made it clear that the likelihood of seeing a Ford-badged hybrid on Australian roads in the near future is remote.

With the Australian market too small to cost-effectively innovate on a large scale, the auto industry’s best hope is to exploit its global partnerships and import technology to help reduce fuel consumption and emissions from Australian vehicles, but it’s likely that the cultural shift required for the industry to embrace such globalisation may take some time.

(Source: Drive, Carsguide)

US, Australia to consider cellulosic ethanol partnership

While most of the energy news regarding the upcoming APEC summit in Sydney is concerned with nuclear power, the topic of cellulosic ethanol production is also expected to come up during the forum next week, with potentially huge implications for Australia’s ethanol industry.

US President George W. Bush is expected to invite Australia to be part of a plan to produce ethanol from wild grasses, a process also known as cellulosic ethanol production. If cellulosic ethanol becomes economically viable in Australia, it would allow ethanol to be produced from land that is not currently being used for feedstock, currently a major hurdle in the widespread acceptance and use of the fuel.

Recent advances in the United States have proven the ability to produce ethanol from the cellulose in plant matter, such as switchgrass, however the production capacity remains at a small scale due to cost prohibitions. President Bush is allegedly very interested in expanding US ethanol production using these methods, and is expected to brief Howard on recent developments during the APEC summit.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald) 

Greens accuse Saab of “greenwashing”

The New South Wales Greens have attacked Saab over their “Grrrrrreen” advertising campaign (covered earlier here) through which buyers can offset the predicted carbon emissions from their vehicles through planted trees. The Greens have taken the complaint to the ACCC, accusing the car maker of making deceptive claims about its greenhouse gas emissions.

Lee Rhiannon, from the NSW Greens, says that the Saab vehicles were “relatively fuel-inefficient, had a poor greenhouse gas rating and poor-to-average air pollution rating, according to the Federal Government’s Green Vehicle Guide”. The carbon offset company being used, Greenfleet, is not independently monitored but says that the trees will be planted approximately one year after payment from Saab.

In addition to the carbon offset scheme, Saab also recently launched its BioPower 9-5, which can use any ethanol blend up to 85 per cent, though blends higher than 10 per cent are currently unavailable in Australia.

—

My thoughts: although it’s important to ensure that companies that announce programs such as this act responsibly, to Saab’s credit they are one of the few companies in Australia that has taken any sort of significant step towards reducing the impact of their vehicles. The problem lies not so much with Saab, who have the details of their plan readily available for anyone to see, but with customers who might take the offset as a reason to use more fuel, since the average consumption is being offset. Changing that mentality would yield better results, but it’s also far more difficult than simply attacking advertising.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

WA minister supports E85

Western Australia is setting itself up to rival Queensland as Australia’s ethanol state, if recent events are anything to go by. The submission by industry to WA’s biofuels taskforce has recommended the introduction of an E85 fuel standard, which would combine 85 per cent ethanol with 15 per cent unleaded fuel. Currently the ethanol content of fuel is capped at 10 per cent by federal regulation.

WA state minister for agriculture, Kim Chance (pictured), is supportive of the biofuels industry in Western Australia.

“There is a great potential in WA for alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol to provide significant benefits in both environmental and economic terms,” he said.

“I believe one of the most important benefits a biofuels industry in WA will provide is the boost to rural economies and an increase in employment opportunities.”

Mr Chance recently had the opportunity to drive a Saab 9-5 BioPower, currently the only flex-fuel vehicle available in Australia. He is also likely to support a mandate for minimum biofuel content in all WA fuel, likely a 5 per cent ethanol blend.

“That will be the key issue that Government will be considering, I can feel reasonably confident the Government will be supporting the other recommendations, but the issue of target and mandate around 2010 and 2011 will engender some lively discussion,” he said recently.

E5 is suitable for almost all vehicles, while E85 can only be used in vehicles that have properly modified fuel systems.

(Sources: Farm Weekly, ABC online, The West Australian)

Tasmania gets ethanol fuel

Tasmanians can now use E10 ethanol-blended fuel as of this week, joining the rest of the nation (except for Western Australia). The ethanol blend will be available through all United Petroleum outlets in the state and is available in two varieties, Plus ULP and Boost 98 (both E10 blends mixed with unleaded and premium unleaded, respectively). Both varieties are expected to sell for a few cents per litre less than their petrol equivalents, and can be used in most post-1986 cars (particularly those that use fuel-injection rather than a carburettor).

“Ethanol contains oxygen and it helps the other components in petrol to burn more completely,” says United general manager David Szymczak. “It also has a cleaning effect on the car fuel system.

“Petrol with 10 per cent ethanol blend reduces carbon monoxide and total hydrocarbon emissions, and it contains less toxins and carcinogens than regular unleaded petrol.”

The ethanol used in Australian ethanol blends is made primarily from sugar cane and wheat byproducts. E10 is the highest ethanol blend allowed to be sold in retail outlets due to federal regulations.

(Sources: ABC Online, Mercury)