In Australia, biomethanol project developer AusBioEnergy (ABE) has announced that it has signed a term sheet with Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) for the long-term supply of agricultural residues to its planned renewable methanol facility at Moree in New South Wales (NSW).
LDC has been part of Australian agriculture since 1913 and is active across cotton, grains, oilseeds, pulses and juice.
Today, its cotton business is a large-scale originator and handler of Australian cotton and cottonseed. Its footprint has expanded to 13 cotton gins, extending from Emerald in Queensland (QLD) through to Hillston in NSW.
For ABE, which has a target to have 300,000 tonnes per annum of biomethanol production capacity by 2030, the opportunity is compelling.
The agreement is another important step toward building an integrated regional supply chain that connects Australian agriculture with renewable fuel manufacturing and the businesses that will ultimately use that fuel.
According to ABE, “Moree is our first step, but our ambition is much larger: to scale production through a portfolio of capex-efficient, modular facilities across agricultural regions”, ultimately producing renewable methanol at scale for:
- sustainable aviation fuel (SAF);
- long-duration and resilient power applications, including methanol fuel-cell systems supporting data centres and industrial power applications;
- replacing diesel in remote agricultural applications, including irrigation, where grid electrification can be difficult or uneconomic.
The project is a practical example of how agricultural by-products can support a more circular economy, with the potential to create new value from agricultural by-products, build regional manufacturing capability and local jobs, and strengthen Australia’s domestic fuel supply.
ABE and LDC will collaborate to advance the environmental and regulatory approvals for the proposed feedstock supply arrangements.
