Many projects that had been in development for years have made the transition into fully-fledged commercial realities.
Australian Renewable Fuels (ARF) – a spin off from oil and gas player Amadeus Energy – lodged a prospectus for a $A15 million initial public offering in March.
The company successfully listed on the ASX on March 10, with plans to build two plants (in Western Australia and South Australia) with a combined annual production capacity of 88 million litres of biodiesel, derived from used cooking oils, animal and vegetable fats.
Investment group Babcock & Brown listed B&B Environmental Infrastructure (BEI) on the ASX after Environment Infrastructure Limited entered into a conditional strategic Management Agreement with B&B Infrastructure Management to become its flagship environmental investment vehicle.
The restructured company completed its acquisition of two existing Australian companies, Southern Oil Refinery (SOR) – an oil re-refining operation in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales – and Natural Fuels Australia (NFA).
NFA plans to commission a biodiesel facility in Darwin, Northern Territory, with an initial 150 megalitre capacity. NFA also intends to pursue biofuels interests in North America and Asia.
BEI has also agreed to purchase US ethanol producer Denco, in a deal originally set up by Australian Ethanol Limited.
The Babcock & Brown group recently purchased Portuguese energy company Enersis, with various renewable energy projects in development that may be transferred to BEI upon completion.
In December, the Australian Biodiesel Group (ABG), founded in 2001, successfully floated with an oversubscribed $A20 million initial public offering, with 75% of shares purchased by institutional investors.
ABG currently operates a biodiesel facility in Berkeley Vale, New South Wales, running at around 75% of its 40 million litre annual capacity. ABG says it has received all necessary approvals to commission a second, 160 megalitre facility in Narangba, Queensland by mid 2006.
Meanwhile, in Queensland, construction of the Dalby Biorefinery in Queensland will begin in the first half of 2006, providing a consortium of independent fuel retailers in Queensland with their own source of ethanol.
The Dalby Biorefinery project was first conceived in 2001 after the federal government announced its cleaner fuel policy.
The project is headed by Chris Harrison, who until recently was the director of Petro Fuel.
Petro Fuel was recently purchased by Caltex, which has an agreement with the Dalby Biorefinery to purchase locally produced ethanol.
But not every company's plans have gone smoothly. Axiom Energy was obliged to withdraw its original initial public offering after the Australian Treasury advised the board that its proposed waste plastic-to-diesel project (constituting about 20% of the company's forecasted revenue stream) would face full fuel excise.
Axiom told EnvironmentalManagementNews.net that it planned to continue to develop its plans for diverting non-PET plastics from landfill – to be sourced by strategic partner Visy – as a raw material for diesel production, dependant on a successful ruling providing excise relief from a non-Treasury federal department.
In the meantime, Axiom intends to release a revised prospectus focused on its approved biodiesel production business model in early 2006.
Technically, all fuels used with combustion engines attract the full fuel excise of 38.1 cents per litre under the advisement of the Australian Tax Office.
The federal scheme to increase the attractiveness of cleaner fuels depends on excise relief provided by the Department of the Environment & Heritage, which will provide a full 38.1c a litre rebate on approved biofuels until 2011 in order to help establish a new biofuels industry.
After 2011, the amount of the rebate will decrease until 2015, at which time the government expects the net excise on biofuels to be half that of petro-diesel.
The year has ended with Prime Minister John Howard claiming Australia is likely to exceed the federal government's annual production target of 350 million litres of biofuels by 2010.
The federal government has refused to mandate the use of biofuels, which some companies think is a necessary step in the creation of an Australian biofuels industry.
Instead, the government has chosen to implement a program designed to increase consumer confidence in biofuels in a move federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane described as the "best investment that could be made in the sector".
