How do we ensure that the significant potential offered by the use of biomass for electricity, heat and liquid fuels is tapped in a way which significantly makes a contribution to Australia’s broader sustainability goals?

This was the question asked by the authors in the recently published report Sustainable Production of Bioenergy, officially launched at the Bioenergy Australia Conference 2009 on the Gold Coast.

Co-funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship, Industry and Investment New South Wales, The University of New England and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, the review analyses how Australia’s bioenergy industry can take advantage of the significant opportunities before it, while avoiding the ‘villain’ tag associated with a number of international industries where the ‘food versus fuel’ issue has dominated the bioenergy debate.

The report recommends that Australia develop a cohesive and comprehensive bioenergy sustainability framework – in terms of both institutional systems and sustainability assessment systems.

Since 2005, there has been there has been an explosion of activity in the application of sustainable concepts to biofuels in the international arena, particularly as the production and use of biofuels in the United Sates, Brazil and the European Union ramped up rapidly.

In Australia, the bioenergy and biofuel industries are still reasonably small. However Dr O’Connell says that industry growth driven by the expanded renewable energy target, increasing oil price volatility and the spectre of peak oil, and the imperative to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, means that Australia has an excellent opportunity to demonstrate its sustainability credentials.

A number of key messages can be drawn from the report.

  • The bioenergy value chain involves complex institutional arrangements.

The Australian Government and various state agencies have a range of bioenergy policy mechanisms in place, however these have been subject to continual change, leading to considerable uncertainty for industry and investors.

The bioenergy value chain crosses a range of policy areas – from biomass production, through to combustion, and it is a major policy challenge to integrate these, especially when most policy is developed around a single objective, for example carbon mitigation, or water security.

  • Other countries are getting on with it

There are many countries and organisations, and some industry bodies, attempting to deal with this issue, and they are scattered along a development pathway.

Only the United Kingdom’s Renewable Fuel Transport Obligation and the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil have reached the implementation stage of their schemes.

Meanwhile, a recent European Union Directive has specified in some detail how Europe will deal with the issue of bioenergy sustainability, and all the member countries are now working to fall in behind this –though the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom are at more advanced stages of framework development than most other countries.

A bioenergy sustainability framework would assist the Australian bioenergy industry to access overseas markets where admission is only granted to those biofuels that meet specified sustainability criteria.

  • A framework will nurture industry growth.

There is no implemented sustainability framework for bioenergy in Australia, although there are a number of building blocks in place.

The development of a formalised sustainability framework will underpin industry growth, provide a broad license to operate, and thus should be considered as an industry enabler.

Further discussion is necessary, particularly to assess the risks, costs and benefits incurred by industry growth, the distribution of these across public and private interests, and the burden of proof of bioenergy versus other sectors, especially around shared resources such as water.

Evidently, there is much work to be done, but as Dr O’Connell points out, there are encouraging examples both internationally and in Australia of sustainable production of bioenergy.

“In Australia, the oil mallee industry has made excellent steps towards achieving a sustainable pathway,” says Ms O’Connell.

Mallee trees grown in strips on wheat farm land provides biomass for energy; reduces the salinity risk to the wheat paddocks; improves the biodiversity of the landscape, and diversifies the enterprise for the farmer.

“They are working on producing a harvester, and have designed an integrated processing method to produce cineole, activated carbon for water filtration, and also feed electricity back into the grid.”

The review is available at the RIRDC website