Engineer Aims to Have Biodiesel Plants across Australia within a Decade

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December 4, 2020

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by Vernon Graham (Farm Online National) A Toowoomba engineer aims to have all Australia farmers switched to biodiesel within 10 years. Johnny Wapstra has founded a start-up, Seed 2 Diesel, and hopes to have a state-of-the-art biodiesel plant somewhere between Toowoomba and Warwick ready for scaling and replication across Australia in two years.

While admitting that securing the funding to build the demonstration plant is a major challenge Mr Wapstra is planning to soon launch an equity crowd funding exercise.

He believes large-scale biodiesel production can be achieved by setting up co-operatives in oilseed growing areas across the country.

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He said he wanted to reduce Australian farmers’ $3 billion annual fuel bill while making them fuel self-sufficient.

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Mr Wapstra said he had a source of ethanol close at hand from a bio-refinery at Dalby which uses sorghum as a feedstock.

Glycerine, a by-product of biodiesel production, could be used for heating and power generation, he said.

Mr Wapstra said at present the animal feed industry was setting the floor price for oilseeds and it was only paying for the protein content.

The creation of large-scale biodiesel production would offer the potential to raise oilseed prices by forcing buyers to put a value on the oil, he said. READ MORE

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