From a recent ABC news story: ‘Plans for a $243 million biodiesel production facility at Port Kembla on the New South Wales central coast have been unveiled recently. The facility at the port’s Inner Harbour will process soybeans for primary industry, with the by-product refined to make biodiesel.

The plant will be able to supply most of the state’s total requirements by 2011. It will be the first facility of its kind in Australia, with a similar plant now under construction in South Africa.

NSW Lands Minister Tony Kelly says 5 per cent of diesel used in the state will have to be biodiesel within two years. “This plant we are announcing today will take about 18 months to two years to be built, just in time for our 5 per cent mandate,” he said. “It will almost cover that mandate by itself.’

The company constructing the facility, National Biodiesel Pty Ltd, says that the facility will utilise proven, cutting edge technology to process soybean into high quality Soybiodiesel® and soybean meal – the staple source of protein in animal feed.

Biodiesels have several performance benefits over Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (which is what Australia is converting to this year), including:

• Higher lubricity, resulting in less engine wear and smoother running.
• Higher cetane rating, resulting in more power and, in many engines, improved fuel economy.

There are also environmental benefits which provide positive benefits to the environment. Toxic air pollutants are generally reduced including a significant reduction in particulate matter and carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and several toxic smog related compounds. Greenhouse gas emissions are also lower.

Alternative energy projects are not just interesting new technologies or employment-boosting projects, they are absolutely essential if the world civilisation as we know it is to continue.

With the dwindling reserves of hydrocarbon-based fuels, alternative fuels like biodiesel and camelina jet fuel are going to be essential when the world runs out of oil. “Peak Oil” (the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline) - may have actually already happened - many industry commentators believe that 2008 was the year - if they are right, what the world will experience in the coming decades will be far worse than the current economic downturn.

It could simply mark the end of the energy-intensive industrial age and what that will do to all the world economies is terrifying to think about.