$14 million committed to sustainable aviation fuel project in Townsville

A $36.8 million project on the feasibility of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant at Townsville has been awarded $14 million in state and federal support.

According to a statement from federal energy minister Chris Bowen, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed $9 million, and the Queensland government contributing $5 million to the project, which is based on converting ethanol from agricultural waste into jet fuel.

The plant would be capable of producing approximately 110 million litres of fuel a year from agricultural waste.

The project includes “a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study and further project development work to assess the viability of a subsequent commercial scale alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) production renewable fuels facility.” A consortium formed by Jet Zero Australia is behind it, with technology from LanzaJet and Qantas, Airbus and Idemitsu Kosan named among the key investors.

FEED activities are scheduled to finish next year.

“ARENA is funding Jet Zero Australia to investigate producing sustainable aviation fuel in Queensland to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller in a statement on Friday.

“We’ll be taking an active role in making sure the lessons from Jet Zero Australia’s study are shared with the industry at large, helping build a path to large-scale production in Australia.”

The grant from ARENA is the first from its $30 million SAF funding initiative, announced in June last year.

The news follows an announcement in August by Boeing, supporting an feasibility study for the planned construction of a SAF refinery at Brisbane, which would also use LanzaJet’s Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) process. It drew $760,000 in Queensland government support.

The Brisbane facility has a planned annual capacity given as 102 million litres of SAF and 12 million litres of renewable diesel, and construction is planned for 2026.

Picture: credit Qantas

Further reading

Boeing and Wagner join to manufacture and utilise sustainable aviation fuels

CSIRO, Boeing map the way to sustainable aviation fuel

ARENA backs sustainable aviation fuels with new fund