The Hunter’s power stations could play a role in the future production of biofuels for Australia’s airline industry.
A report produced by the CSIRO’s Energy facility in Newcastle claims algae, forest waste, crop residues or urban waste, could all be used to make jet biofuels.
It says greenhouse emissions could be cut by 17 per cent and it could reduce Australia’s reliance on aviation fuel imports by $2 billion dollars a year.
Manager of Carbon Futures, Paul Graham says if fuels can be developed from algae, then power stations are an ideal source.
“The exciting think about algae is that it doesn’t need particularly clean water and there’s a fairly wide temperature that acceptable for the water as well,” he said.
“They need to be located near a concentrated source of carbon dioxide so that’s something that could be located in the Hunter valley where we’ve got a high concentration of power stations.”
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/26/3227347.htm