Clifford Jones founded Beacons Consulting International in 1988 to provide high-level energy and water system development advice in Australia and a number of other countries.
In 2000, Beacons began concentrating on renewable energy technologies and the integration of renewable energy generation facilities that produce valuable output products, as part of ‘Integrated Renewable Projects’ (IRPs).
IRPs represent the integration between biomass power plants and other bioenergy plants that produce products according to local market demand (for example, biofertilisers or biodiesel). Within an IRP, a biomass power plant also connects with algae production systems to produce dry algae for external use (for example, in pharmaceuticals or paint pigments).
In addition to founding Beacons Consulting, Mr Jones established BioTek Fuels to act as the Australasian licensee for Beacons’ technology, and BioTek now promotes the development of bioenergy and biofuel projects across Australasia.
BioTek recently won both the 2011 Developer Award and the 2011 Sustainable Energy Industry Award for Excellence and Innovation at the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia International Conference and Exhibition in Perth, for its success in commercialising these projects.
What is your vision for the use of biofuels in Australia?
We can combat global warming and consequential climate change by using renewable power generation to replace fossil fuel power generation. All of the traditional climate action weapons, and new and improved weapons, need to be deployed in order to make a difference, as the world demand for energy continues to rise rapidly.
Most of the currently popular forms of renewable power generation rely on a time of day (such as solar power) or the intensity of an energy source (such as wind power), and therefore only provide power to a high-voltage grid in an unregulated, intermittent manner.
Biofuels provide the best potential for a reliable, 24 hour, 7 days per week renewable power supply throughout Australia, based on recycling residues. There is a lot of work being done to continue refining the technologies for biofuel power, and to reduce its capital and operating costs.
Are biofuels close to being incorporated into the mainstream Australian market?
Biofuel power projects are yet to gain the recognition they really deserve.
Politicians and the population at large can easily grasp the concepts of projects based on solar, wind, wave and geothermal technologies. The development and construction time for these projects is somewhat shorter than for the more complex biofuel projects with their recycled residue fuel supply chains.
Australians are yet to enthusiastically embrace the need for efficient recycling. Use of the full range of municipal waste in special biofuel power projects is well-proven in many countries, but is still not a popular concept in Australia, although there are some very good installations now coming online.
Biofuel projects, with the use of harvest residues from forestry and agriculture activities and selected green wastes, are mature technologies – even in Australia. The world is changing, and in Australia we need to accept challenges and apply our world-renowned innovation to change threats into opportunities.
How are IRPs leading the way in bioenergy generation?
Bioenergy power projects that utilise forest harvest residues (mainly from plantations) where the residue is paid for are currently commercially viable above 20 megawatts (MW). This is very dependent upon the value of the renewable incentives under existing sector legislation.
In order to cost-effectively generate baseload bioenergy power below 20 MW capacity, there must be valuable co-products to underpin revenues.
IRPs are a stepping stone towards large-scale (CO2) capture from gas power plants and coal power plants; an example is the CO2 to algae projects that represent a very large reduction in emissions.
BioTek is currently sponsoring the development of a 70 MW IRP in southwest Western Australia.
How will distributed bioenergy generation in Australia change and improve over the next 20 years?
Bioenergy power in Australia – in the form of IRPs – will continue to be refined by companies such as Beacons, and there are identified steps towards significantly reducing the costs of the plants and systems within an IRP and improving their operational efficiency.
It is expected that with these improvements and the rising cost of power generated from coal and gas, the need for any form of subsidy for IRP-based bioenergy power should disappear within 10–15 years.
The local integration of different forms of renewable power generation in country regions is even now being contemplated. The establishment of IRPs in distributed grids around Australia, providing local baseload power, will make it much easier to connect co-located IRPs to other forms of more intermittent generation, such as solar and wind.
In many cases, regional power and water supply from IRPs will eventually be retailed by local authorities or co-operatives. This will be more in tune with local generation of biofuel power and the local sourcing and treatment of brackish or saline surface or underground water.
