Planes to be powered by straw and timber

Friday 22 Mar 2013

 
Australia could be fuelling aeroplanes with waste from crops and plantation timber within three to five years according to a key research institute reports ABC News.

The Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is part of an international researcher’s team aiming to make five per cent of the world’s aviation fuel out of biomass by 2020.

Executive director of the CRC, John McGrath, says this will require a new level of biomass production in Australia. "The growth potential is quite large," he said. "If we think back to the aviation targets, we’re talking five per cent requiring four to five million tonnes of dry biomass and that will require new resources.

The CRC is working with Virgin Australia, Airbus and General Electric as well as biofuel industry processors around the world on the biomass-to-jet-fuel project. While the project was initially focussed on mallee trees grown in Western Australia, Mr McGrath says the project hopes to broaden its scope to include straw and plantation timber from across Australia.
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