BOMADERRY ETHANOL EXTRACTION PLANT
The Hon. JAN BURNSWOODS: Will the Treasurer outline what measures are being taken in New South Wales to investigate the viability of a new process to produce ethanol?
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: The Government has supported the establishment of a pilot plant for Bomaderry, which is just north of Nowra on the south coast, to attempt to develop a new technology to extract ethanol from wood waste. The proponents of ethanol claim that when it is used as a fuel blend it lowers the emission of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other particulates which cause haze and smog, and are generally believed to damage the atmosphere and air quality. Traditionally, ethanol has been extracted from wheat starch. A couple of years ago a researcher, Dr Russell Reeves from Apace Research, backed in various ways by the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology, Sydney, proposed new technology to extract ethanol from wood waste.
The Hon. J. H. Jobling: Lignocellulose.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: I am indebted to the Hon. J. H. Jobling. That proposal appealed to State Forests, which has a surplus of wood waste, and the Department of Energy and the Department of State and Regional Development both believed the proposal was worth further investigation. As a result, the Government announced that it would put $2 million towards a total of $5 million to establish this pilot plant to develop the technology. The rest of the
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money was the come in the form of a $1 million in-kind assistance from a private producer of ethanol, Dick Honan, who runs the Manildra group of companies from Bomaderry, and $2 million pledged by the Federal Government. Mr Honan already produces ethanol from the traditional wheat starch extraction process and, I am told, sells it in a fuel blend through the Bogas chain of service stations.
The pilot plant, which will essentially be a large laboratory set up in a building the size of a small house, was to have been established at Mr Honan’s existing ethanol manufacturing facility at Bomaderry. I regret to have to inform the House, however, that this promising project has been stalled since last year because the Howard Government, which has pledged $2 million, loaned the allocated money to an outfit attached to the Department of Primary Industry and Energy, namely, the Energy Research and Development Corporation. I am able to report, however, that the problem may now be cleared up. I understand that in its budget this year the Federal Government simply abolished the Energy Research and Development Corporation.
Canberra is certainly not big on visionary and environmental problems these days. Nevertheless, the New South Wales Government is led to believe that this may open the way for the promised funding for the development of this potentially innovative process to flow through, as it was always meant to. This process could provide the basis for a new renewable and sustainable energy source. If that were the case, its mass production would necessitate a manufacturing industry and generate many hundreds of jobs, mainly in the bush - in regional New South Wales. As a government we continue to support this research and hope that the Federal Government will now do the same. I shall keep the Hon. Jan Burnswoods and the House informed of the developments.
If honourable members have further questions, I suggest they place them on notice.