Flinders University is home to eight separate research groups involved in the investigation of potential of feedstock sources and in finding solutions to problems associated with biofuel processing and use.
Dr Clarke said that although Australia has been comparatively slow to enter the field, the Federal government has begun to encourage the production of biofuel by making grant money for sustainable energy available.
But to date the results for biofuel have been mixed, with many of the new companies entering the field lacking sufficient technical background to resolve basic problems. Because biodiesel producers in Australia range from back-yard operations using spent cooking oil through to larger firms with small-scale refineries, achieving product consistency and quality is a major concern, Dr Clarke said.
Another fundamental challenge for a sustainable biofuel industry is to generate a viable supply of the constituent feedstocks.
"Whether it be tallow or canola oil, there's just not enough of it around," Dr Clarke said.
Dr Clarke said while oil derived from marine algae is another potential source for biodiesel, it cannot yet be manufactured at a competitive price. He said that no single fuel source will replace oil: rather, a mix and match strategy will be needed, with different biofuels used for different applications.
This means plenty of scope for scientific research.
"Each feedstock source needs a different technology, and each country has their own favourite: the US focuses on soy; European countries focus on rapeseed, a variant of canola; we tend to use tallow because of its cheapness," he said.
Dr Clarke is already engaged in applied research with industry to overcome problems associated with tallow-based biodiesel.
"Because tallow is high in saturated fats, which are solids, 100 per cent biodiesel made using tallow goes solid at around 10 degrees Celsius, creating obvious practical problems for users. Our project was to try and find ways to lower that temperature down to around zero degrees."
Dr Clarke's team was successful in reducing the clouding temperature of B100 by 15 degrees, and they now have funding to modify their technique to work in the lower concentrations of biodiesel more typically used in Australian blends.
Dr Clarke said there is also urgent need to address the issue of biofuel by-products: production of every 10 litres of biodiesel, for example, produces one litre of glycerol.
"At the moment there is no value-added industry - if we replace the 15 billion litres of diesel Australia uses with biodiesel, we will have 1.5 billion litres of glycerol floating around," he said.
"Glycerol has the potential to be converted into a whole range of chemicals and products including paints and plastics; at the moment it's nearly all being incinerated."
As oil production begins to fall away and demand from China and India increases, prices will only become more expensive. With industry showing increasing willingness to fund research, Dr Clarke said that it was a matter of urgency for Australia governments at both Federal and State levels to make additional resources available for biofuel research and development.
"George Bush has committed America to a sevenfold increase in biofuel production in the next decade, and has also mandated that 50 per cent of all new vehicles produced in the US will run on biofuel (E85 and biodiesel) by 2012; the Japanese, too, are moving to produce cars that run only on biofuel," Dr Clarke said.
"If Australia can develop a good, strong biofuels industry, we have the possibility of taking the technology around the world."
|
