Carbon revenues to benefit energy projects
Where is the federal government's pending carbon tax going to end up? A sizeable chunk will be going into projects like Queensland's Renewable Biocommodities Pilot PlantThe hysteria surrounding the carbon tax often drowns out government messages about where the money will go – the money not being used in consumer compensation programs, that is.
Part of it will go to the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism's new Australian Renewable Energy Agency, from which $3.2 billion will go into research and development grants to help bring renewable energy technologies to market.
One promising example lies in Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Mackay Renewable Biocommodities Pilot Plant. One of the major hindrances to the development of a global biofuels industry lies in concern about the use of land to feed car engines while human beings go hungry. The Mackay plant has gone some of the way to allaying such fears with its development of a system for making ethanol not from sugarcane but from its waste products.
Launched a year ago by Innovation Minister Kim Carr and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, the plant helps turn the cane fields of Queensland into a sideline source of clean, cost-effective renewable energy for a country heavily dependent on rolling transport.
That makes it worth every cent of the $5 million the federal government is providing the project under its National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and Super Science Initiative, Senator Carr said in a statement.
The toughest part of the research is in extracting the high-value fermentable sugars from the cane waste (aka biomass) left behind after the foodstuffs have been taken.
"We've developed and demonstrated the pre-treatment process required to modify biomass so it's more amenable to processing into fermentable sugars and other higher value biocommodities," QUT Professor James Dale said in the statement.
The project will see QUT and local industry partners gauging the commercial viability of the plant's biofuel products and lobbying the transport industry and other stakeholders for the uptake of this technology in Australia.
If all goes according to government plans, the Department of Innovation's new $200 million Clean Technology Innovation Program will further the cause by giving private investors the incentive they need to help capitalise a raft of renewable energy, low emissions and energy efficiency technologies.
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