Victoria to be home to green fuel tech plant

[Demonica]

Victoria could soon be home to a ground-breaking green fuel technology plant, with the announcement of a consortium formed between the Victorian State Government and a group of leading companies.

The consortium - which also includes Holden, Caltex, Veolia, Mitsui and Coskata - will investigate the viability of establishing Australia’s first ethanol plant capable of turning materials such as household rubbish and building waste into more than 200 million litres of ethanol a year. This ethanol will be blended into an alternative fuel known overseas as E85; a mixture of up to 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent regular petrol.

The plant would produce ethanol using a process developed by leading US biofuel company Coskata Inc, which last year unveiled one of the world’s few plants capable of producing ethanol from material such as agricultural waste and household rubbish.

Holden will introduce Australia’s first locally produced flex-fuel vehicles capable of running on the high-ethanol fuel, later this year.

[deez]

long overdue, although the wording "investigate the viability" suggests this is still a long way off. i still don't understand why combustion engine technology is mainstream. sure, we could blame the oil companies but governments (or the powers that be) have a lot to answer for.

[TVR-190]

id def run e85, they need to do it

[levymetal]

producing fuel from waste, that sounds pretty good. hopefully they are working on engines that can run on 100% ethanol too

[schrinky]

i would quite happily swap over to E85! the only issue is, it will make us all sound like greenies!! "we use E85, were saving the planet!" HAHA!

[HSVchixy]

think of it as the movie Back to the Future... load it in the DeLorean and go

[Nanos]

think of it as the movie Back to the Future... load it in the DeLorean and go

the mr fusion. think thats what it was called anyway.

[HSVchixy]

i want one... apparently only 31 in aus... and clearly out of my price range... maybe i'll build a mockup kitcar one day *sigh*