The maiden shipment of 8.8 million litres of biodiesel follows the completion of Natural Fuel’s $48 million biodiesel plant in January.
“This is the first export from Australia, but it's a potential export industry for Australia,”AAP quoted chairman John Hewson as saying.
Natural Fuels Australia is a 50-50 joint venture between Natural Fuel Ltd and investment bank Babcock & Brown.
The Darwin facility is Australia’s largest biofuel plant and can produce 140 million litres of biodiesel and 12,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical grade glycerine per year. It uses palm oil feedstock.
“The biodiesel being exported has been sourced from members of Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. As a member of this Round Table attention to sourcing feedstocks from appropriate plantations is part of NFL’s and NFAL’s charter,” Natural Fuel Ltd said in a statement.
The plant is selling biodiesel domestically through various distributors including AusFuel and ConAgra Trade Group.
