Representatives from GrainCorp, IFM Investors, and Ampol, together with Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, at Ampol’s Lytton site last year. Photo: Ampol

THE AUSTRALIAN Renewable Energy Agency has announced $6.1 million in funding for GrainCorp’s study to investigate the establishment of a new canola-crushing plant in Australia.

This is alongside an additional $8M in funding to support Ampol’s development of a renewable fuels plant at Lytton in Brisbane.

GrainCorp’s project, titled SAF Oilseed Crushing Facility Pre-Deployment Study, is estimated to cost a total of $19.8M.

It will explore the feasibility of constructing a crush facility which may produce a minimum of 330,000 tonnes of canola oil as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production.

This represents approximately 12 percent of the 6.13Mt of canola exported from Australia in the year to 30 September 2024.

The funding will occur over two stages, first for pre-FEED engineering and then, subject to review, FEED engineering.

Ampol’s proposed facility is expected to produce more than 450 megalitres (ML) of SAF and renewable diesel each year.

The funding will assist Ampol to undertake its Pre-FEED engineering for the company’s Brisbane Renewable Fuels facility.

GrainCorp CEO Robert Spurway said the funding will support ongoing efforts to expand the company’s leading oilseed-crush capacity.

“GrainCorp is advancing plans to scale up our oilseed crush operations, recognising the critical role of feedstocks in a renewable fuels supply chain,” Mr Spurway said.

“Our feasibility work focuses on proximity to oilseed sources, fuel-refining capacity, customer demand, and export potential for canola meal.”

Ampol and GrainCorp, along with Melbourne-based investment firm IFM Investors, recently entered a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the establishment of an integrated renewable fuels industry in Australia.

Ampol managing director and CEO Matt Halliday said the partnership cemented the three companies’ commitment to establishing a domestic supply chain for SAF.

“The combination of Ampol’s existing liquid fuels infrastructure and capabilities, the expertise of our MOU partners IFM Investors and GrainCorp along with ongoing government support, has the potential to create a national renewable fuels ecosystem and unlock Australia’s competitive advantage in infrastructure, technical expertise and the availability of raw materials,” Mr Halliday said.

ARENA’s SAF Funding Initiative was launched in 2023 with $30M to support the development of a domestic SAF industry considering short and medium term solutions to emissions reduction for Australia’s aviation industry.

This brings ARENA’s total investment to $23M across three projects with more investments to be announced beyond the previously allocated $30M.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said these projects represent an important step towards developing a pipeline of projects that could support the reduction of aviation sector emissions.

“Aviation is a persistently challenging industry from an emissions reduction perspective,” Mr Miller said.

“With Australians being among the most prolific flyers in the world, decarbonising this high emissions industry will be vital for us to achieve our net zero targets.

“These two projects are an important step towards developing opportunities to cut emissions from Australian skies and ARENA will be working to ensure the lessons from these projects help inform the broader development of a sustainable aviation fuels industry in Australia.”

Source: ARENA