phill Parsons
The geniuses at the major car companies have just released new lines of gas guzzlers so that Australian families living in cities can look forward to selecting models made off shore as they try to match their image with their family budget, their mortgage and Howard’s promise of prosperity.
Now we should be developing biofuel, our sagacious leaders are saying.
Leader howard hopes for petrol at a $1.15 or $1.20. This price is based on the so called underlying value of oil $40 to $50 a barrel. The rest is speculation and security of supply issues.
Remember when it was on the news nightly. Well its still out there at about $76 a barrel.
Leaving aside the complexity of speculation and security that have sent oil up in price we remain faced with a finite resource and this has been known for years.
Non fossil fuel extenders have also been known for years.
Diesel ran his first engine on peanut oil and Brazil is on high ethanol blends after years of engine development.
The geniuses at the major car companies have just released new lines of gas guzzlers so that Australian families living in cities can look forward to selecting models made off shore as they try to match their image with their family budget, their mortgage and Howard’s promise of prosperity.
Liberal politicians weep crocodile tears and refer their leader to biofuels and Beazley sings from the same sheet, neither offering an actual plan to give Australia fuel security.
Biofuels would consume 65% of the Europe Unions’s 990km2 arable farmland to supply the 457 million people 20% of its liquid fuel needs. [1.]
Australia’s 21million therefore need 26% of their 490km2 arable land to supply 100% of their needs.
The best current crop for biodiesel is palm oil and to grow more but never meet world demand the world’s rainforests will have to be sacrificed.
However in the temperate zone of a wheat producing country the most readily useable crop is Canola, bred for low acid cooking oil, until an oilseed that produces more oil is developed.
At $75.00 per barrel oil is now dear enough to make biodiesel fuel production competitive. [2.]
Of course without a clear and firm policy investment in alternative fuel production has been tentative.
Signs on the bowsers
One advantage is that such a fuel becomes independent of the world oil price once it is used in the production of biodiesel as well as throughout industry. This us the fuel that replaces what is needed in industry, heavy transport, mining and agriculture.
At a price independent of oil fuel will only change price in step with inflation, not have the potential to lead it due to scarcity or speculation.
But what if such production takes off.
The only infrastructure not in place are the processing plants and the signs on the bowsers. Everything else will work with this fuel.
Processing, instead of being a chain back to oilfields, many overseas, would be inland somewhere in the wheat belts. Each region would have a new industry producing fuel, resulting in cheaper fuel in the country and a supply of oilseed less the oil for stock food.
Of course wheat production would be impacted. If Australia’s commits 26% of its cropable land to Canola then one would think wheat production will fall further.
However, when wheat follows a Canola crop the wheat produced goes up by some 25% and water use falls.
Currently the difference between the 2 crops favours Canola’s gross margin per ha by about 20% and a Canola wheat rotation has returned $2250 over 2 years where wheat wheat only produced $2000 per ha.
It would be an odd farmer who complained about a 12% lift in income and cheaper locally produced fuel.
And given that wheat production only falls by a further 15% to replace the cost of imported oil our balance of payments will improve by some 2.9B. [$3.4b of wheat exports 2003/04 balance against oil imports exceeding exports by 3.9B in 2004/05. [5.] with wheat exports down by $500M and oil imports at nil]
So there it is, a plan we can implement tomorrow and in a number of years reduce dependence on imported oil to nil and be ready when oil runs out.
It avoids processing coal to produce a fuel that still effects climate and it does not interfere with the introduction of another fuel as you can simply adjust the amount of Canola if something viable and cheaper eventuates.
In the meantime be prepared for prices going up and up as the Iranian situation gets worse, Iraq fails to settle and problems with oil production such as cyclones in the Gulf of Mexico, more speculation and as new demand impact on limited supply and the words of the leaders of the old parties fail to bite into the price.
A clearly articulated national policy to replace hand wringing cant is needed. Such a policy may contain other elements but here is the germ for liquid gold as we drive about in diesels powered by plants making our lifestyle potentially more sustainable.
phill Parsons awaits the announcement of this program to make Australia run on biodiesel or evidence of its disbenefit to the national figures, to the wheat belt or to greenhouse gases.
Geoscience Australia – arable land comparison http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/dimensions/compare.htm
Senate Inquiry
Wheat Exports Value http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Latestproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article212006?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=1301.0&issue=2006&num=&view=
Oil Imports Value http://www.appea.com.au/IndustryInformation/Strategy%20Terms%20of%20Reference%20140306.pdf
Canola in Rotations http://www.canolaaustralia.com/__data/page/168/Chapter_5_-_Canola_in_Rotations.pdf
