New Zealand Biofuel Roadmap project takes off

An initiative by Scion, a New Zealand Crown Research Institute for wood and biomaterials, to understand the future potential of biofuels in New Zealand has attracted attention from ‘serious players’.

Scion reports that actors in industry, government, and sector interest groups in addition to the research community have expressed interest in its New Zealand Biofuels Roadmap (NZBR) project.

NZBR, set to run for the next two year, sets out to define optimum pathways for large-scale production and use of liquid biofuels in New Zealand.

Scion’s clean technologies science leader Paul Bennett says biofuels have ‘much to offer to New Zealand’ and that their benefits are ‘very clear’.

‘Reduced transport sector greenhouse gas emissions is top, followed by reduced reliance on imports for our fuel supply, and economic and employment growth through creation of a new industry,’ says Bennett.

The project kicked-off in November with a workshop in Wellington involving stakeholders across a complex value chain from policy makers to commercial users.

According to Bennett, at the end of the project Scion intends to have an action plan for the biofuels sector that aligns investment with positive policy framework and direction in resources, conversion, distribution, and use.

‘Key steps in the project are building a quantitative model that can test a range of biofuel scenarios, defining those scenarios using variable feedstock, technology, and costs inputs, analysing the model outputs, and producing an implementation outcome,’ Bennett says.

The project will conclude in late 2017 with a roadmap that will set an evidence-based, stakeholder-agreed direction for New Zealand’s biofuels future.

NZBR has already attracted a number of participants from across industries and government, Air New Zealand, Lincoln University, Ministry for the Environment, and Norske Skog among others.

The Scion project team welcomes interest from other organisations who may wish to be involved.