Australian Renewable Energy Agency provides AUD$10.4 million for 2 SAF projects

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced Feb. 26 funding up to AUD$10.4 million (USD$6.6 million) for two projects from its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) funding initiative.

ARENA is providing AUD$8 million (USD$5 million) in funding to Licella and AUD$2.4 million (USD$1.5 million) to Viva Energy for separate studies to develop renewable fuel alternatives for Australia’s airline industry.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said these projects represent an important step towards developing a pipeline of projects that could support the reduction of aviation-sector emissions.

“Aviation is a challenging industry from an emissions-reduction perspective with domestic flights currently accounting for approximately 2 percent of Australia’s greenhouse-gas emissions,” Miller said.

“With Australians being among the most prolific flyers in the world, decarbonizing this high-emissions industry will be vital for us to achieve our net-zero targets,” he said.

“These two projects are an important step towards developing opportunities to cut emissions from Australian skies and ARENA will be working to ensure the lessons from these projects help inform the broader development of a sustainable aviation fuels industry in Australia,” Miller added.

The two projects include:

• AUD$8 million (USD$5 million) to Australian technology and project developer Licella for the AUD$26.1 million (USD$16.5 million) “Project Swift—SAF from Sugarcane Residues Feasibility Study” to complete feasibility and front-end engineering design (FEED) studies assessing the viability of establishing a biorefinery facility in Bundaberg, Queensland, utilizing Licella’s patented catalytic hydrothermal reactor (Cat-HTR™) hydrothermal-liquefaction technology to convert sugar-mill residues to renewable fuels. The proposed facility would be capable of producing approximately 60 million liters (nearly 16 million gallons) per year of low-carbon liquid fuels (LCLFs), of which around 40 million liters (10.5 million gallons) per year will be SAF.

• AUD$2.4 million (USD$1.5 million) to Viva Energy for the AUD$4.9 million (USD$3.1 million) “SAF infrastructure Solutions for the Future project” to recondition an existing tank at its Pinkenba Terminal to enable blended SAF supply into Brisbane Airport for commercial use. Viva will also work with industry partners to develop a book-and-claim system so that customers can recognize the carbon-reduction benefits of the SAF supplied. The project will conclude with Viva Energy supplying SAF into the Brisbane joint-user hydrant installation and demonstrate the storage and use of SAF within the existing airport. Following the project, the system will be able to supply volumes of SAF to meet customer demand.

Lachlan Pfeiffer, Viva Energy’s chief strategy officer, said the funding from ARENA is a crucial milestone in the company’s journey to supply sustainable fuel to Australia’s aviation industry.

“By enhancing our SAF infrastructure, we are not only supporting the aviation industry’s transition to lower-carbon emissions but also positioning Viva Energy as a leader in renewable energy solutions,” he said.

“Viva Energy is well placed to import and supply SAF,” Pfeiffer added. “Viva Energy is a trusted partner to many aviation customers and our strength lies in deep relationships and a nationwide supply chain backed by the international capability of Vitol.”

Licella CEO Alan Nicholl said that ARENA’s funding will support the roll out in Australia of its commercial-ready Cat-HTR™ platform through the development of its SAF-focused biorefinery targeting agricultural residues in regional Queensland.

“We are delighted to receive ARENA’s support as we move forward with the feasibility studies for our Queensland project,”, Nicholl said.

Len Humphreys, Licella’s executive chairman, highlighted the opportunity to scale this new SAF pathway.

“Through our global partnership with Shell, we are advancing an integrated biomass-to-advanced biofuels commercial solution, one which is targeting high volumes of low-cost, low-carbon SAF,” Humphreys said.

ARENA has announced total funding of AUD$33.5 million (USD$21.2 million) across five projects under the SAF funding initiative launched in 2023 to support the development of domestic SAF production to support aviation decarbonization, with more investments to be announced beyond the previously allocated AUD$30 million (nearly USD$19 million).

The SAF funding initiative builds on the findings of ARENA’s 2021 Bioenergy Roadmap, which identified SAF produced from biomass as one of the few opportunities to reduce emissions in the aviation sector in the short to medium term.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation SAF Roadmap identified that Australia has sufficient biomass feedstocks to supply more than half of domestic jet-fuel demand, demonstrating the potential impact of supporting these early projects investigating domestic SAF production capability.

Low-carbon liquid fuels have been identified as a priority sector as part of the federal government’s Future Made in Australia plan.

ARENA has been nominated as the delivery agency for the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund.