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Eucalypt-fired power stations could be used to provide renewable energy, while also having potential for increasing farm incomes and contributing to the fight against dryland salinity, according to a new report from the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program (JVAP).
The concept of using biomass (plant material) for the supply of energy has long been a feature of human societies, from primitive campfires to sophisticated manufactured products such as bio-diesel.
Speaking today at the launch of the report Biomass energy production in Australia Status, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Board Director Mr Barry Buffier said there is great potential for the use of biomass to generate electricity and produce liquid transport fuels.
“The main focus of this study is on biomass from forestry, particularly new forestry that may also achieve other environmental benefits in Australia’s dryland regions,” Mr Buffier said.
While the growing and harvesting of short cycle mallee eucalypts in Australia is already reported by RIRDC, there is a lack of similar work in Australia and this study has therefore used overseas experience for much of its discussion of biomass harvesting and transportation.
Biomass energy production in Australia: Status, costs and opportunities for major technologies includes technical sections to introduce current and projected technologies for production of electricity and liquid fuels from biomass feedstocks.
There are also several hypothetical examples of electricity and alcohol fuel plants, as well as overall costing of bioenergy systems and a preliminary sensitivity analysis.
Case studies have been developed that examine short cycle tree crops for bioenergy and also for more conventional long rotation plantations - locations examined are in south east Queensland and the Murray Darling Basin.
A major finding of the study is that in many cases bioenergy alone is
not a viable commercial driver for the new tree planting that the Joint
Venture
Agroforestry Project (JVAP) is encouraging across much of Australia.
The report therefore examines other products that may be possible if
biomass supplies are established for a bioenergy industry. Also considered
are the other environmental and social benefits that would result from
new tree planting and bioenergy in rural areas.
Biomass
Biomass is organic matter originally derived from plants, produced through
the process of photosynthesis, and which is not fossilised (such as coal).
Biomass for energy is a unique form of renewable, solar energy. Of
the massive amounts of solar energy that falls on the Earth’s surface,
some 0.02% is captured by plants via photosynthesis and bound into biomass
energy.
This translates into the production of some 220 billion ‘dry’ tonnes of biomass per year, which as an energy source represents some ten times the world’s total current energy use. Currently some 15 percent of the planet’s energy requirements are met from biomass, mainly for cooking and heating in developing countries, but also increasingly for fuelling a growing number of large-scale, modern biomass energy plants in industrialised countries.
ENDS
Media inquiries
RIRDC Barry Buffier 0401 995 102 or JVAP Dr Russell Haines 0400 799
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