During the study Boral has undertaken a range of activities to test the technical and financial feasible of this potential renewable energy project.
Report extract
Boral Timber has identified an opportunity to convert its hardwood sawmill residues into a range of renewable energy and industry feedstock products. Boral Timber has undertaken a Feasibility Study into the use of a Mechanical Catalytic Conversion process (MECC) being developed by Global Ecofuels Solutions S.L. (GEFS) based in Spain to convert hardwood sawmill residues into renewable diesel, bitumen and other products. Boral Timber would like to thank ARENA for its support in exploring this innovative approach to renewable energy.
During the study Boral has undertaken a range of activities to test the technical and financial feasible of this potential renewable energy project. Activities undertaken include, pilot plant trials in the GEFS facility in Spain, delivering a preliminary engineering design and costing for the world’s first full scale MECC production facility, product attribute testing and potential end use applications, assessing a potential regulatory approvals pathway, completing a business case financial model and commissioning a Proof of Concept LCA report for the MECC process.
Through this program of work Boral Timber has identified that the MECC process is technically able to convert hardwood sawmill residues from Boral’s Herons Creek mill into a range of renewable products including; transport grade Renewable Diesel, a renewable bitumen product that is blendable with fossil fuel bitumen for the production of asphalt plus a range of saleable by-products. The Proof of Concept LCA report identifies that the renewable diesel has less than 25% of the carbon intensity of fossil fuel derived diesel.
The business case modelling shows that the project is financially viable on an estimated capital spend of $85M.
The next step in the project development is to embark on a detailed engineering design, site selection and regulatory approvals process.