Biofuel in Australia

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Biofuel in Australia is available both as biodiesel and as ethanol fuel, which can be produced from sugarcane or grains. There are currently three commercial producers of fuel ethanol in Australia, all on the East Coast.

Legislation imposes a 10% cap on the concentration of fuel ethanol blends. Blends of 90% unleaded petrol and 10% fuel ethanol are commonly referred to as E10,^[1] which is available through service stations operating under the BP, Caltex, Shell and United brands as well as those of a number of smaller independents. Not surprisingly, E10 is most widely available closer to the sources of production in Queensland and New South Wales. The Australian Government has set a target for the sale of 350 million litres of E10 fuel each year by 2010.^[2]

Recently BP Australia celebrated a milestone with over 100 million litres of the new BP Unleaded with renewable ethanol being sold to Queensland motorists. In partnership with the Queensland Government, the Canegrowers organisation launched a regional billboard campaign in March 2007 to promote the renewable fuels industry.^[1]

1 Production
2 Regulation
3 Taxation
4 Government Support
5 Marketing
6 Ethanol in other countries
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Production

There are currently three commercial producers of fuel ethanol in Australia, all on the East Coast. CSR's Sarina distillery and the Rocky Point distillery are located in Queensland and produce ethanol from molasses feedstock. The Manildra Group also produces fuel ethanol from waste starch and grain at a facility near Nowra, New South Wales. The combined capacity of these three producers has been estimated at less than 150 million litres per annum. A number of other prospective producers have projects at various stages of development.^[3]

[edit] Regulation

Legislation imposes a 10% cap on the concentration of fuel ethanol blends. Blends of 90% unleaded petrol and 10% fuel ethanol are commonly referred to as E10. There is also a requirement that retailers label blends containing fuel ethanol on the dispenser.

[edit] Taxation

Domestically produced fuel ethanol is currently effectively exempt from excise tax until July 1, 2011 (an excise of 38.143 cents per litre is payable on petrol). From this date, excise will be increased at 2.5 cents per litre annually until it reaches 12.5 cents per litre in 2015.^[3]

[edit] Government Support

Federal Government support for fuel ethanol includes a voluntary industry biofuels target (encompassing ethanol, biodiesel, and other biofuels) of 350 million litres per annum by 2010, capital grants to current and prospective producers, fuel excise relief, and an effective tariff on imported ethanol until July 1, 2011.

In 2006, the Premiers of both New South Wales and Queensland proposed mandating the blending of ethanol into petrol.

[edit] Marketing

E10 is available through service stations operating under the BP, Caltex, Shell and United brands as well as those of a number of smaller independents. Not surprisingly, E10 is most widely available closer to the sources of production in Queensland and New South Wales. E10 is most commonly blended with 91 RON "regular unleaded" fuel.

BP has been marketing ethanol blended fuel in Queensland since 2001 and will soon commence the rollout to BP branded service stations in New South Wales, with the fuel to be available at about 50 additional locations by the end of the year. Over the next few years BP’s planned expansion of ethanol blended fuel in New South Wales will see this number of service stations doubling.^[4]

[edit] Ethanol in other countries

Some of the most significant bioethanol fuel programs around the world include that of; Brazil, Colombia, China and the United States.

Brazil has the largest sugarcane crop in the world, and is one of the largest producers of ethanol in the world. High government sales taxes on gasoline, and a large amount of ethanol fueling stations in the counrty, have cultivated a profitable national ethanol industry.
The United States is largest producer of ethanol with 16 billion litres/year while Brazil produced nearly the same amount (15.5 billion litres).
Japan imports ethanol from Brazil as part of Brazil-Japan Ethanol.
The United States currently imposes trade restrictions on Brazilian ethanol in order to encourage domestic ethanol production, most of which has so far been based on processing corn consisted of sugar cane or soybeans, which is much less efficient.