Continual Renewable Ventures (CRV) is in the process of securing land for three production facilities in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia and is actively working with state governments to find sites for the ventures.
The company holds a joint commercialisation and development agreement with XCF Global, the parent of US-based New Rise Renewables, which operates a fuel facility in Reno, Nevada that uses waste oil, agricultural residues and distillers corn oil to produce hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and sustainable aviation fuel.
Petersen said CRV would replicate the Reno facility under Australian conditions, turning waste oil, tallow and eventually non-food grade crops into fuel for mining, agriculture and aviation.
“We’ve submitted our applications and believe we will be assessed on that early next year,” Petersen said. “We could be fully operational and producing fuel in under two years.”
The company has Kwinana in mind as the ideal site for the WA facility, citing existing infrastructure and proximity to aviation hubs. Petersen said the modular design of the bio-refinery would allow a relatively small footprint compared with traditional refineries while producing 175 million litres, with the ability, after multiple scale-ups, to reach 600 million litres on about nine-and-a-half hectares of land.
Petersen said the fuel requires no modification to existing vehicles. “You could go from a full tank of diesel to a full tank of renewable diesel and back and forth with no issues,” he said, adding that the renewable diesel offers a greenhouse gas reduction of about 80 per cent, between 70 and 90 per cent.
The company has already locked in contracts to sell about 70 per cent of the fuel it will produce, Petersen said, with the fuel potentially helping mining companies claim scope three emission reductions. The company is also working with grain providers to enable farmers to benefit from the fuel they help create.
Petersen said each plant would employ at least 100 to 120 full-time staff.
The project comes as diesel prices in Australia have hit record highs, driven by the ongoing war in the Middle East. In April, a major fire at one of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries knocked out at least a fifth of its production capacity, heightening concerns about the nation’s fuel security.