The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has launched a new project aimed at generating electricity from biomass.
DPI’s $4 million Biomass for Bioenergy project will look at opportunities for increasing the amount of sustainable biomass in NSW with a focus on electricity generation.
Senior Research Scientist with NSW DPI, Fabiano Ximenes said one of the purposes of the project was to identify available and potential feedstocks for bioenergy generation at varying scales, with an understanding of techno-economic and social constraints.
“NSW DPI Forest Science is partnering with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Australian Tree Seed Centre to investigate the productivity of prospective woody biomass crops grown under a variety of conditions,” Dr Ximenes said.
“The trials will be established at DPI Research Institutes at Orange and Yanco, and as the current drought conditions improve, at Tamworth, Scone and Glen Innes,” he said.
“An estimated 6,000 native trees will be planted at each trial site, with woody crops including several mallee species, more traditional forestry species and Acacias.”
Dr Ximenes said dedicated biomass crops would benefit various degraded lands and result in the creation of long-term job opportunities in regional NSW, across all parts of the supply chain, covering growing, harvesting, transporting and processing.
“Woody biomass crops may be used for a variety of renewable energy applications,” he said.
“This includes electricity generation at a smaller scale, such as hybrid solar-biomass systems, potentially allowing for regional communities in NSW to become energy self-sufficient.”
