Mercurius Biorefining plans to establish pilot and demo plants in Queensland
Type of post: NEWS.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is testing a novel technology
called REACH which has been developed by the US company Mercurius Biorefining (Mercurius) to convert biomass into jet and diesel fuels. On 20th
February, the Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and
Planning of Queensland (Cameron Dick) joined the CEO of Mercurius (Karl Seck)
at Brisbane’s QUT
Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities (CTCB) to view the results of this
scientific testing and discussing a plan to establish a pilot plant in Queensland
area (see media statements, 20/2/2018).
Plans for establishing pilot and demo plants
The REACH technology could enable the
manufacturing of renewable jet fuel and diesel made from sugarcane waste across
Queensland under a project supported by the State Government. During the visit,
Karl Seck underlined the company’s intention to use the State of Queensland as
its biomanufacturing hub. They selected it after a global search of potential
locations due to its favourable business climate, extensive agricultural
industry and world-class universities.
Initially, Mercurius
plans to build a pilot plant to test different units of the process in
Gladstone and Mackay and, later, a larger demonstration plant at Gladstone.
Over the longer term, based on the
performance of the pilot and demo projects, the company could seek out further Queensland locations to build up to
five commercial scale biorefineries. The demonstration plant would attract an investment of 11 million AUD and around 50 jobs.
REACH technology and the scientific validation
program
The scientific validation program and the feasibility
study of the REACH technology is being supported through the Biofutures
Acceleration Program (see below more blog post related to this program). The
project aims to optimise the process and help determine achievable yields and
the quality of the fuel produced from sugarcane bagasse (fibrous residue left
after juice extraction) and other biomass. Although validation processes are
not yet concluded, results to date are positive and in line with expectations (see press release of CTCB, 20/2/2018).
Figure 1. Basic flow diagram of the REACH
technology (extracted from Mercurius website)
REACH (Renewable Acid-hydrolysis Condensation
Hydrotreating) process consists of three main steps: acid hydrolysis,
condensation and hydrotreating. The technology is similar to industrial
processing techniques already in use in the pulp and paper industry and in the
petroleum industry, therefore, it can be easily scaled. The CTCB is
demonstrating the first two steps of the process. The intermediate obtained (biocrude)
is subsequently transformed into jet fuel and diesel by the Northern Oil
Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant near Gladstone. Litre quantities of the precursor
fuel product have been already produced by the CTCB and sent to undergo the
final hydrotreating step.
- Queensland’s
BAP endorses the new biorefinery of MSF Sugar (13/7/2017).
