Australia’s Renergi has won A$5.2 million (US$4.6 million) in government funding to set up a pilot biofuel production plant in Perth.
The funding will come from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, an independent body established by the Australian government to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies, and to increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia.
The plant, which will cost a total of A$12.9 million to be set up, will use agricultural waste and mallee to produce biofuels. The facility will see a 100 kilogram per hour biomass conversion (pyrolysis) unit designed and constructed along with a complementary 20 litre per hour biorefinery unit. It is due to be completed in October 2017.
Renergi was spun off from Curtin Unioversity’s Fuels and Energy Technology Institute in 2012 to commercialise a number of energy technologies including biomass gasification for distributed power and heat generation, biomass pyrolysis and refinery for the production of biochar, bio-oil and advanced biofuels, and co-firing of biomass with coal in existing coal-fired power stations.