It\u2019s official. Australia\u2019s first methanol-to-jet fuel facility will be built in South Australia after the Peter Malinauskas-led government provided support for an $800 million sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking about the deal today, David Stribley, HAMR Energy\u2019s co-founder, said the decision to set up camp in South Australia builds on its existing investments in Victoria: \u201cThe state\u2019s world-class infrastructure, commitment to clean energy, and proximity to sustainable feedstock sources make it an excellent location to accelerate decarbonisation in aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wood Central understands that wood residues from the Green Triangle will serve as feedstock for the massive plant, which will use Honeywell\u2019s world-leading methanol-to-jet technology to produce more than 300,000 tonnes of low-carbon methanol, made from a mix of plantation residues and hydrogen, to provide up to 140 million litres of SAF every year. And according to Stribley, that\u2019s enough to fully offset more than 4.5 million economy-class passenger trips between Adelaide and Melbourne over a 12-month period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Already, researchers from the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) Fibre to Fuels project <\/a>are working alongside 16 partners to test whether residues from the Green Triangle, home to the country’s most productive forest plantations, as well as forests in Tasmania and Western Australia, can be turned into low-carbon liquid fuels at a commercial scale. Led by Professor Mark Brown, Director of the <\/em>AFWI Centre for Sustainable Futures<\/em> located at the University of the Sunshine Coast<\/a>, Professor Brown revealed to this masthead <\/em>that the feed inputs will be provided to fuel the enormous facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cForestry residues are a high-quality resource that can become a valuable domestic feedstock for renewable fuel production,\u201d Professor Brown said today. \u201cFibre to Fuels exemplifies the type of commercially-minded innovation that can move Australia to the forefront of low-carbon manufacturing, delivering regional benefits, building sovereign capability, and contributing to the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Already, HAMR Energy has signed supply agreements with local plantation estates like OneFortyOne, which has been a vocal champion of the project since signing a memorandum of understanding last year. Meanwhile, in January, OneFortyOne Director of Corporate Strategy Nick Chan described the Green Triangle\u2019s scale, year-round operations, and established logistics as key advantages for supplying feedstock for low-carbon fuels, calling the HAMR partnership \u201ca defining moment for plantation forestry in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n