“If all goes to plan we could be realistically looking at commercial production of biodiesel by 2008,” council chief executive Tony Heidrich told EnergyReview.net.

In June last year ERN reported that the Australian banana industry, represented by the ABGC, had commissioned the University of Queensland to undertake a study to assess the technical and economical viability of possible waste-to-energy options relevant to the banana industry.

Researchers found that through the process of anaerobic digestion, energy extracted from bananas could be used to displace diesel or industrial use LPG.

An anaerobic digestion plant makes use of anaerobic bacteria to break down banana waste, converting it into a stable solid and biogas, which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide.

The gas then undergoes compression and scrubbing to become a useable fuel.

The council has applied for state and federal government funding of $550,000 for a prototype anaerobic digestion facility, which they hope to test on a farm for 12 to 18 months, digesting about 25 tonnes of waste.

Heidrich said an anaerobic digestion facility that processed 6000 tonnes of banana waste a year would produce the equivalent of 222,000 litres of diesel.

The Australian banana industry produces about 315,000 tonnes of annual banana crop annually, of which 10-20% is waste.

This would provide 30,000 to 60,000 tonnes of an available supply of stalks and unwanted fruit, according to Heidrich.

With about 80% of the national crop being produced within a 100km radius in North Queensland, it would be relatively cheap to divert waste streams from banana farms to a central processing plant without significant transportation costs, he said.

The plant could be used to provide fuel for a collection of growers while on-selling the surplus.

As an added bonus, the waste-to-energy conversion produces a fully bio-degradable residue that can makes for a nutrient-rich organic fertiliser, Heindrich said.