A NEW harvester developed with state government and private funding could spark interest in the commercial potential of mallee trees in Western Australia.
WA farmers have planted mallee trees for the past 15 years to control the rising watertable and associated salinity issues, but aside from the environmental benefits there’s been little commercial incentive for investors.
That’s despite efforts to prove mallee tree chippings can produce renewable electricity, charcoal, activated carbon and eucalyptus oil.
Paul Turnbull from the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre believes inefficient harvesting methods have been the fledgling industry’s biggest problem.
The research centre has just completed development of a prototype harvester, which can harvest 38 tonnes of trees in one hour, converting them to mallee chips.
“Nobody’s going to invest in mallees unless they know the trees can be harvested at a cost-effective price,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Without this harvester, no industry is coming. Now we’ve got the harvester ...”
The harvester was developed by east coast company Biosystems Engineering with $1.5 million of funding from the Western Australian government’s low emissions energy development fund.
The research centre chipped in another $1.5 million, while Biosystems Engineering contributed some of its own cash.
Mr Turnbull said the main barrier to cost-effective harvesting of mallees was an inability to move the trees from harvest to chips in a single process.
“The harvester has a lighter saw, it’s more robust, it’s got tougher teeth and it’s got a mobile chipper, so it works really well,” he said.
“Feeding the tree into the chipper was the hardest thing to develop; thinking ‘why don’t we just do this?’ is easy, but then you’ve got to get the thing built.”
Verve Energy was involved in a trial using mallee tree chips to produce renewable electricity, charcoal, activated carbon and eucalyptus oil at a wood processing plant at Narrogin.
While the trial proved the products could be made, Verve corporate relations manager Peter Winner told WA Business News the lack of a solid supply chain put a stop to any further development.
Simon Dawkins from the Oil Mallee Association agrees development of an efficient harvester was a roadblock in the establishment of a wider industry.
“We believe that’s a key element, but we are also pretty certain that once the market is established for biomass, farmers will create new machinery for doing the same thing,” Mr Dawkins said.
“The difference is that now there’s this sophisticated harvester that can be copied and commercialised.”
Mr Turnbull said the harvester was now being used as an incentive for private investors to consider the potential of a mallee biomass industry, which required a dedicated biomass plant.
“To drive ongoing business you need to attract initial investment of about $80 million to build a biomass plant,” he said.
“What we’re using the harvester for is to tell those investors now the trees can be harvested efficiently.”
Verve Energy said it would consider a commercial plant when a reliable and cost-effective supply chain was established, reliable carbonisation technology became available and off-take agreements could be reached with product wholesalers.
