Banana biofuels project aims to reduce growers’ fuel bills

Peak horticulture organisation, Growcom, has been awarded a grant of just under $200 000 by the Sustainable Industries Division of the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build a pilot biofuel plant in Tully. The plant will test the commercial viability of using waste bananas to produce a natural gas to run tractors, farm machinery and vehicles.

The plant will be constructed and operated in the next 12 months on the plantation of Bush Holdings at Tully. “About 10 per cent of bananas are currently discarded in the Queensland banana industry every year due to imperfections which make them unsuitable for sale,” said Growcom CEO  Jan Davis. “Bush Holdings, one of the industry’s larger growers, has agreed to partner with us to provide the constant supply to the plant required for the pilot project,” said Ms Davis.

“We expect the project will confirm the research findings made by the Division of Environmental Engineering at the University of Queensland last year. Researchers showed that natural gas could be produced from bananas using a ‘continuous digestion’ process involving natural microbial organisms. “We plan to transform their work from the laboratory benchtop into a full scale pilot plant on farm.”

Ms Davis said bananas offered the advantage of producing a cleaner gas, consisting of just methane and CO2, than other waste streams such as human sewage, piggery or feedlot waste, with the added attraction of less noxious odours. “We anticipate that the pilot plant will begin producing gas in about five months’ time and we hope it will prove that the gas can be produced in commercial quantities and compressed for use in combustion engines to power tractors and machinery.

 “We hope that scaled up production could ultimately see a cheaper alternative fuel to petrol produced at the larger packing sheds on farm, saving growers a significant amount on their annual fuel bill. “The technology also has the potential to be transferred to other fruit and vegetable commodities such as apples in other regions.”

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Chris Walker
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