Mackay jet fuel plan picking up speed

QUT research brings manufacturing plant proposal closer

Member for Mackay Julieanne Gilbert and Mercurius Biorefining CEO Karl Seck at QUT's research centre at Racecourse Mill on Wednesday. Picture: Campbell Gellie

MERCURIUS Biorefining CEO Karl Seck will take a "serious look” at Mackay as the home of a commercial jet fuel manufacturing plant. He said it could be operating in about four years.

In Mackay yesterday, the chief executive officer of the Washington State based company said lab research with QUT, into increasing efficiency at turning plant based proteins into oils, was picking up speed.

This means that the company could soon build two pilot plants in Central Queensland, in Mackay and Gladstone, at a cost of $11million and with a 50 strong workforce.

If that was successful then a demonstration plant would be built in Gladstone.

"Then we would move to the commercial plant and start looking seriously at Mackay,” he said.

The benefit of having the plant in Mackay is the huge abundance of bagasse, the waste product of the sugar milling process. About 1.8m tonnes of bagasse fibre is made through the milling process in the Mackay area each year.

Mr Seck estimated one dry tonne of bagasse would create about 300L of jet fuel.

He said another reason he was looking closely at Mackay and Queensland was the Palaszczuk Government's approach to increasing its biofuels industry.

He said he hadn't seen a government more willing than Queensland to work with the industry.

Member for Mackay and Assistant Minister for State Development Julieanne Gilbert said the previous state government had waited for the commercial sector to invest in industries but that approach had not worked.

"The government needs to lead the way and go out and look for the opportunities,” she said.

This approach from the State Government, including paying companies to operate in Queensland, is at odds with what it has done with Adani by blocking the use of tax payer money to prop up the Carmichael mine.

However, Ms Gilbert said the State Government had helped Adani receive all of its approvals and it was now up to the Indian energy giant to find the funding and get on with the construction of the mine.

Originally published as Mackay jet fuel plan picking up speed