Southern Oil Refining to build biofuels pilot plant in Queensland

Australia-based Southern Oil Refining has announced plans to build a biofuels pilot plant at its Yarwun plant in Gladstone, Queensland.

The A$16m ($12m) Northern Oil advanced biofuels pilot plant is planned to be expanded into a large commercial-scale refinery costing A$150m ($113m) and produce 200 million litres of advanced biofuel per year.

The plant will use biomass material such as sugarcane bagasse and possibly prickly acacia as feedstock to produce bio crude oil, which will be distilled into kerosene and diesel products.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the new plant will be Australia’s first commercial-scale advanced biofuels production facility.

The plant is set to be operational later this year and is expected to produce one million litres of fuel within the next three years.

Biofuels minister Mark Bailey said: "This announcement, along with the 3% biofuel mandate that applies from next January, illustrates how biofuels are going to figure more prominently in the fuel supply chains of the future."

Currently, Southern Oil Refining in a joint venture with JJ Richards & Sons operates a A$70m waste lube oil re-refining plant at Yarwun in the Gladstone State Development Area.

The plant has the potential to process all of Queensland’s 100 million litres of waste lube oil per year.

Southern Oil Refining managing director Tim Rose said the company has been assessing whether to place the technology at its Wagga Wagga plant in New South Wales or at its new re-refinery in Gladstone for the past few months.

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Image: The plant will use biomass material feedstock to produce bio crude oil. Photo: courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.