Green light for Tasmanian biofuels expansion

Report: Cameron Wilson
Construction on Tasmania's first biodiesel plant to process poppy seed is expected to start within a month, after the project was approved overnight. The Macquarie Oil plant at Cressy in the Northern Midlands will ultimately create more than five million litres of fuel each yearThe environmentally friendly fuel will be sold in Tasmania, potentially for use in the marine industry, power or transport sector. Director of Macquarie Oil Rob Henry says he hopes the operation will benefit the environment and local farmers."There are people lining up to use it." " We've had initial talks with some big companies in relation to power generation in remote areas, Metro in Hobart are interested. It's of interest to the marine industry because of it's environmentally friendly nature" Mr Henry says.Due to the high price of canola, Rob Henry says the plant will be able to operate on range of feedstock's, including tallow, used cooking oil, poppy, canola, linseed and mustard oil."Because of what's happened because of the drought in Australia and the world situation with biofuels, the price of canola has gone through the roof, but at the moment Canola is not on our list to use as biodiesel, so that limits us a little bit so thats why we are looking at other crops, possibly a crop like mustard or linseed, or something like that."Northern Midlands Mayor Kim Polly says the project had councils unanimous support because the benefits are wide reaching."It's going to produce something like 40 tonnes of biodiesel per week, and it's going to be a reuse of a waste product."
In this report: Rob Henry farmer and director of Macquarie Oil; Kim Polley, Northern Midlands Mayor.