According to a new research report on standby fuel released by local consulting firm EnergyQuest and Ecco Consulting on November 21, Australia's ethanol and biodiesel production capacity should be easy to meet the federal government's 2010 target of 350 million liters / year.

According to the study, if the current plan is realized, Australia's biofuel production capacity may exceed 640 million liters/year by the end of 2007 and may reach nearly 2.4 billion liters/year in 2010. The country's biofuel production capacity will be sufficient to meet about 10% of gasoline consumption and 5% of diesel consumption.

But the report found that future biofuel production and use will depend on production costs, continuous community acceptance and government compensation.

With high oil prices, transportation fuel substitutes - biofuels, liquefied petroleum gas, compressed natural gas, gas to liquid, coal to liquid, and liquefied natural gas have obvious market opportunities.

But most alternative fuels are more expensive than traditional transportation fuel sources, and no alternative fuel can provide a perfect alternative, and there may be many alternative fuels, the report's co-author, EnergyQuest CEO Graeme Bethune in Sydney. Said at a biofuel conference.

The biggest challenge for the Australian biofuels industry is rising costs and limited supply of major raw materials such as sorghum for ethanol production and tallow for biodiesel, said Mike Cochran, co-author of the report and CEO of Ecco Consulting.

Without government support, the cost of producing biofuels will be higher than the cost of traditional fuels, even at the peak of oil prices earlier this year.

However, in the long run, the potential for reducing raw material costs and increasing raw materials through the adoption of new technologies includes the production of ethanol from biomass and the production of biodiesel from algae, which are sufficient and unlike some raw materials. They are not part of the food supply chain.

In recent years, Australia’s biofuel production has been rising, encouraged by many government policies, including the introduction of a federal consumption tax of $0.38143/litre biofuels introduced in 2004 until June 30, 2011, which will be levied on gasoline and diesel. .

In 2005-2006, Australia's biofuel production was about 30 million liters, representing about 0.1% of total gasoline and diesel consumption.