The first sods were turned at Katunga on Tuesday as renewable energy company AgBioEn started earthworks on its $2 billion project to turn agricultural waste into renewable fuels.
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The project, which is an Australian first, will produce electricity, high-quality renewable diesel and jet fuel, fertiliser and food-grade carbon dioxide.
‘‘AgBioEn will contribute approximately $500 million to local communities through local business and contractor work, supported by an economic impact assessment report,’’ AgBioEn managing director Peter Holmgren said.
AgBioEn will use a combination of pyrolysis technology and Fischer-Tropsch to process organic waste materials (biomass) such as cereal straw.
Over the life of construction and once complete, the project will create more than 2000 local jobs.
“We've committed to the local community back in November that we would use local contractors,” company director and program director Lubey Lozevski said.
“So we've engaged Chris Smith & Associates as the managing group to manage the project here for the earthworks and we've brought on Kris Lee Earthworks, who are from Katunga.”
Mr Lozevski explained why the company chose the Goulburn Valley region to build its facility.
“First off, this is the food bowl, so there is a lot of agriculture in the area,” he said.
“Also, there's a lot of transport and when there's a lot of transport, there's a lot of diesel use in the region.
“One of the (other reasons) is we want to do some more cropping, so it's ideal to do more cropping in this region.
“We will do 75 000 ha of cropping to grow cereal crops like corn, oat and hay, barley and sorghum and we will sell the grain to the market ... and then we will use the crop residue as our feedstock and that gives us guaranteed volume of feedstock for our project at Katunga.”
Neighbouring business Katunga Fresh will be one of the first local businesses to benefit from the AgBioEn project.
Katunga Fresh will use this new source of renewable energy and fuels for its existing 16 ha of glasshouses.
The partnership will also allow the company to expand, with another 5 ha glasshouse being developed this year and another 40 ha of glasshouses to be constructed during the next four years.
The company has engaged with Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE Shepparton, La Trobe University Shepparton, the University of Melbourne's Dookie campus and GROW Greater Shepparton to make sure the right courses are available to educate people to fill the roles needed for the facility.
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