Nationally, research and development investment in primary industries, which currently exceeds $1 billion annually, needs to be focused and used efficiently and effectively across both collaborative and stand-alone activities.

In November 2008, the Primary Industries Ministerial Council appointed the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) to lead the National Research and Development Plan for Bioenergy and Biofuels.

So far, RIRDC has found that current research focuses on a small number of feedstocks and conversion processes, whereas a range of feedstocks will be required for different regions in Australia, and that significant additional research is required in logistics, biorefineries and suitable bioproducts, as well as in sustainability.

Assessing current resources in R&D

The multi-sectoral nature of bioenergy provides a challenge to developing a national strategy, due to the numbers of widely differing agencies, industries and scientific disciplines involved – ranging from many and varied primary industry sectors that produce feedstocks for bioenergy, through to processors, energy and fuel companies, diverse government agencies, biologists, agriculturalists, engineers and policy researchers.

An early step in the development of the strategy is an assessment of the resources currently applied to this sector in Australia.

This investment over three years of $93.5 million was funded largely by:

Australian Research Council: $21 million

AusIndustry: $17 million

Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism: $14 million

State governments: $13 million

Private sector: Undisclosed

The major research provider (by numbers of projects) was the university sector at 50 per cent of the total number of projects.

Deciphering key priorities

Through consultation, survey and workshops, priorities have been established for the multiple sectors of the bioenergy industry. Such priorities include a review of national and international development in the approaches to sustainability relevant to production of biofuels, bioenergy and bio-based products in Australia; along with the identification of regions for the sustainable growth of bioenergy/biofuel crops and integrated biomass production.

Priorities in the area of conversion technologies include the development of a research investment framework to identify the most likely technologies to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to Australian industries over multiple time horizons, and the exploration of the use of other stationary power renewable technologies in combination with biomass.

The level of investment in research and development at present with reference to each of the priorities:

Sustainability / policy No. of projects: 6; Investment (over three years): $1 million

Feedstocks No. of projects: 61; Investment: $44.4 million (Sugar: $19 million; Algae: $13 million; Pongamia: $3 million; Sorghum: $3 million)

Supply logistics No. of projects: 1; Investment: $0.4 million

Conversion technologies No. of projects: 51; Investment: $46.4 million (Biofuels: $37 million; Electricity/heat: $9.3 million)

Biorefinery/Bioproducts No. of pojects: 7; Investment: $2.5 million

The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation

RIRDC is a statutory authority in a unique partnership with the Australian Government and rural industries to invest in research and development for new and emerging industries and national rural issues. RIRDC has a research and development program in bioenergy, bioproducts and energy, including a management role for Bioenergy Australia – an alliance of 85 industry, research and government organisations.

Bioenergy Australia

Bioenergy Australia’s mission is to foster the development and use of biomass for energy, fuels and chemicals, to be a focus and forum in Australia for bioenergy, to facilitate research, business project opportunities, and to provide the Australian membership of the International Energy Agency Bioenergy research tasks.

Dr Roslyn Prinsley is General Manager, New and Emerging Industries, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) and Chair, Bioenergy Australia.

Vicki Byrne is Senior Program Co-ordinator, RIRDC.