BPA will build a biorefinery in Mackay with the support of Queensland Government

News are coming from Australia. Once again, the Government of Queensland shows its commitment with bioeconomy growth in that Australian State. More than a year ago, the Blog reported the announcement of Southern Oil Refining about building an advanced biofuel pilot plant at Gladstone (see post). The announcement of the BioFutures Roadmap of the Queensland Government tipped the scales in the decision on the location. By the way, the pilot plant was already commissioned this month. Last December, the Biofutures Acceleration Program of the Government issued an Expression of Interest to seek proposals from experienced parties that develop commercial scale biorefinery projects in Queensland (see post).

Now, the Government has just announced support to help accelerate the development and construction of a new biorefinery in the Mackay Region (see media statement). The available data are summarized in the following table.

Project type	The facility will comprise three elements: a yeast producing plant, an oilseed crushing plant and a biodiesel plant.
Company	Bio Processing Australia (BPA)
Location	Co-located at Mackay Sugar’s Racecourse Mill.
Products and annual production capacity	26,000 tons of soymeal. 2,000 tons of yeast products for the animal feed market. The oilseed crushing plant will produce 30,000 tons of non-food grade vegetable oil. 15 Ml of biodiesel suitable for heavy transport industries.
Cost	AUD 50 million. AUD 8.64 million of assistance of Queensland Government.
Employment	The initiative could create up to 115 jobs. 70 construction and 45 skilled operational jobs. Commercial soy bean production is also expected to create further jobs in the agriculture, transport and logistics sectors.
Schedule	BPA will complete a full feasibility study with a view to making a final investment decision and commence construction of the biorefinery in 2018.

Figure 1. Mackay Sugar’s Racecourse Mill (extracted from Mackay Sugar web page). It is expected that the new biorefinery will be co-situated at this facility.

Therefore, the Queensland Government is continuing with its Biofutures Acceleration Program for the development of new or expanded commercial-scale biorefinery projects. In this case, it has acted quickly to provide this support at an early stage in BPA’s planning so that the company prioritises the establishment of the biorefinery in Queensland. It has put sensible commercial conditions on the funding to ensure the completion of agreed construction milestones. Additional potential biorefinery projects are expected to be announced for regional Queensland in the coming months.