A Townsville researcher in north Queensland believes the growth of the state’s biofuel industry is being hampered by a lack of refineries.
Premier Anna Bligh has told a biotechnology conference in Washington that she wants Queensland to become the biofuel capital of the Asia-Pacific region.
Associate professor Kirsten Heimann from James Cook University says Queensland has plenty of biomass but not enough refineries.
“It’s still more hampered by not having modern refining and extraction facilities,” associate professor Heimann said.
“Producing the biomass is one thing but extracting the biomass and refining it to aviation fuel standard is the other hurdle.”
She says the aviation industry is likely to become one of the biggest users of biofuel.
“They are the only transport industry really that will rely on biofuels that have similar characteristics as fossil oil derived jet fuel - because of the longevity of the engines they really need fuels that can just drop into existing processes,” she said.
