Virgin Australia partners to develop unique Australian eucalypt tree biofuel

Virgin Australia (formerly Virgin Blue Airlines) (Brisbane) has announced that it has partnered with Renewable Oil Corporation (ROC), Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (DYMTF) and Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FFI CRC) to develop a sustainable aviation biofuel that also has benefits for the Australian farming community and the environment.

In a world first, the consortium plans to use innovative fast pyrolysis technology developed by Dynamotive to process mallees, a eucalypt tree that can be grown sustainably in many parts of Australia.

The partnership brings together companies with special expertise in growing, harvesting and processing feedstock into aviation fuel to support the development of a full scale commercial plant in Western Australia.

Dynamotive has invested in excess of A$100 million and more than 10 years of work in developing its fast pyrolysis technology from bench-scale through to commercial-scale plants in Canada. The plants are equipped to make pyrolysis oil for fuels and also produce biochar, for soil improvement and carbon sequestration.

Leading the commercialisation of mallees is the Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FFI CRC), a national R&D joint venture with experts in breeding, growing and harvesting these trees.

Already more than 1,000 farmers have planted mallees in belts on their farms, mainly in Western Australia. Later this year the FFI CRC partnership will bring the prototype, world’s first hardwood biomass harvester to Western Australia for wide-scale demonstrations.

Renewable Oil Corporation (ROC), which identified the mallee tree as a promising biofuel feedstock, is Dynamotive’s Australian partner and develops biofuel projects in Australia.

The consortium is currently finalizing plans for a demonstration unit that will make bio-fuels for testing, certification and public trials. The demonstration unit is intended to be operational in 2012, followed by the construction of a commercial-scale plant, which could be operational as early as 2014.

Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Please click on the photo for information about the new Virgin Australia product.