NZ report: Petrol from pines could run nation’s car fleet

Radiata pine plantations could be used as a bio-ethanol crop to fuel all vehicles in New Zealand, according to the NZ state-owned forestry researcher, Scion.

Scion has been working with another state science company, Agresearch, and wood processor Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) to investigate adding a bio-ethanol manufacturing plant to the infrastructure at either of CHH’s pulp and paper mills in the central North Island.

A plant in the Central North Island could produce 90 million L of ethanol a year, it said.

This would make up the government’s target of a 3.4% biofuel component of petrol and diesel by 2012.

Scion has used enzymes from the US Verenium Corporation, to refine the cellulose in wood into ethanol and other products.

Scion and its partners on Monday released a report showing that biofuels from New Zealand tree waste at future plants around the country could run the nation’s entire vehicle fleet.

The technology could switch the national economy from one based on petrochemicals to one based on carbohydrates, said Scion chief executive Tom Richardson.

“This type of research is capturing the attention of the rest of the world,” he said.

“Internationally, softwood feedstocks have largely been undervalued as a potential source of biofuels as they are considered technically too difficult and too expensive.”

Most international research had been based on using grains, such as corn, sugarcane or grasses.

But biofuels produced from wood wastes would avoid recent concerns about diverting land used for food crops to fuel crops.

“Biofuels produced from wood are a sustainable and environmentally beneficial option,” said Richardson.

CHH executive and project manager James Flexman said the next step was to refine the technology and research and develop a strategy.

About $1 million in taxpayer funding has so far been used in the study, but “additional investment is now vital if the vision is to become a commercial reality,” he said.

Richardson said that the forestry industry could support Prime Minister Helen Clark’s goal to be one of the world’s first carbon-neutral economies.

He will release another report within the next month on bioenergy options, detailing the volume of plantation forests needed and how they should be managed for New Zealand to fuel itself from renewable resources.