From: ABC News - 26/02/2009
Forestry waste from south-east South Australia's pine plantations could produce fuel for Holden's proposed ethanol engines to be built at the Elizabeth plant in Adelaide.
Fallen branches and stripped bark can be used to produce what is known as bio-ethanol fuel.
At this stage the process is still energy intensive, but energy expert Professor Stephen Lincoln from the University of Adelaide says the south-east's pine could eventually provide sustainable fuel for Holden's new ethanol-based engines.
Professor Lincoln says scientists are working to make the fuel with less energy.
"At the moment there's a lot of work going into making this much more efficient," he said.
"At the moment it's really quite energy intensive, so it's really not up to speed yet, but there's a huge amount of work going into this, so in maybe five or six years we'll have a much more efficient method of doing it and that could be a use to which it be put, to produce ethanol for fuel in cars."
Holden is expecting to have its locally built ethanol engine on the market by 2010.
TARAC Technologies, which processes grape leftovers for ethanol, says using grapes has also been suggested as a fuel for ethanol-based engines.
But a spokesman for the company says even with the oversupply of grapes, it costs too much to distil the alcohol to make fuel.
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Check for earlier Pacific Biofuel posts: http://pacbiofuel.blogspot.com/
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