There are a number of

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...

s used in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Biofuels

Biodiesel

Ecodiesel, a company owned by a group of New Zealand farmers, plans to build a

biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with ...

plant by the end of 2008. The plant will be built in stages and cheaper than Argent's, and could produce 20 million litres of

tallow Tallow is a rendering (industrial), rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides. In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain techn ...

-based biodiesel per year by April 2009. In the effort to develop an

aviation biofuel An aviation biofuel or bio-jet fuel Note: About">Investable Universe>About' or bio-aviation fuel (BAF) is a biofuel used to power aircraft and is said to be a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) co ...

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacific ...

and

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

are researching the

jatropha ''Jatropha'' is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἰατρός (''iatros''), meaning "physician", and τροφή (''trophe''), meaning "nutrition", hence the common name ...

plant to see if it can provide a renewable alternative to conventional fuel.

Bioethanol

Gull Force 10, a bioethanol blend, was introduced commercially in

for the first time by the company

Gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

on 1 August 2007. It contained 10% ethanol made from dairy by product by Anchor Ethanol, a subsidiary of

Fonterra Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exce ...

Ltd. On 8 August 2008, Gull introduced a 91-octane bioethanol blend in Albany. The blend, 'regular plus', contained 10%

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

and included bioethanol made from

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of hard ...

. Gull planned to release the fuel to 33 stations, and marketed it as under $2 per litre. On release, the company said it would try to keep the price two cents less than its standard 91-octane fuel. It was reported that British fuel producer

Argent Energy In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to b ...

would abandon plans to build a plant in

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

to produce tallow-based biodiesel. The plant would have cost over $100 million to build, and would have competed with cheaper sugar-based ethanol imports from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The plant could not proceed because a 42c/L

tax break Tax break also known as tax preferences, tax concession, and tax relief, are a method of reduction to the tax liability of taxpayers. Government usually applies them to stimulate the economy and increase the solvency of the population. By this fis ...

on bioethanol until 2010 had not been approved by the government.

Biomass

Firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...

is used as a means of heating some homes in New Zealand and

wood pellet Pellet fuels (or pellets) are biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets can be made from any one of five general categories of biomass: industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, and ...

fires are now becoming more common, especially in areas with high levels of air pollution.

Legislation and government funding

Biofuel Bill

The Labour-led government introduced a Biofuel Bill in October 2007. It passed its second reading in Parliament in September 2008. The Bill requires petrol and diesel to have a percentage of biofuels added with the amount increasing to 2.5% after five years. In April 2008 the

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment __NOTOC__ The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (''Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata'' in Māori) is an independent Officer of the New Zealand Parliament appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the House of R ...

, independent from but funded by the government, recommended in a select committee briefing that the Biofuels Bill should not proceed. This conclusion was arrived at on a number of grounds. The Biofuels Bill did not restrict the importation of biofuels and this would lead to potential societal and environmental harm that may be greater than if biofuels were not used. It was also claimed that this may damage the "clean green" image of New Zealand. Waiting for

second generation biofuels Second-generation biofuels, also known as advanced biofuels, are fuels that can be manufactured from various types of non-food biomass. Biomass in this context means plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel. First-gener ...

and curbing the growth in transport energy consumption were also seen as reasons for not supporting the Bill After the National Party gained power it repealed parts of the Biofuel Bill with the Energy (Fuels, Levies, and References) Biofuel Obligation Repeal Act. It removed the mandatory requirement for all fuel to have a percentage of biofuel.

Sustainable Biofuels Bill

The Green Party tabled a Sustainable Biofuels Bill which passed its first reading in Parliament in July 2009. The Bill "is to ensure that biofuels that are supplied or sold in New Zealand from 1 May 2010 are sustainable biofuels".

Funding

In the 2009 Budget $36 million was made available over a three-year period as grants for biofuel production. It is only available for producers who sell on the local market and are able to meet the quality specifications for engine fuels.

References

External links

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
- biofuels page
Bioenergy Association of New Zealand
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biofuel In New Zealand