Seven green fuel projects designed to accelerate Australia’s move to low-emission transport will themselves be given a boost in a $1.7 million pilot program.
Advisory firm Cyan Ventures announced Australia’s Green Fuels Accelerator on Wednesday, which will receive investment from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as well as backing from Qantas and Boeing.
The announcement comes after major airlines pledged to use low-carbon fuels to reduce pollution, but also after an industry group revealed disappointing production figures for sustainable aviation fuel.
The Green Fuels Accelerator is designed to assist five low-carbon fuel projects in Queensland, one in Western Australia and another in NSW that have yet to progress to a final investment decision.
While the projects use different technologies, most plan to convert agricultural waste or ethanol into low-emission fuels for use in aviation or maritime transport.
The pilot program will provide targeted assistance to companies behind the projects, Cyan Ventures managing partner Fraser Thompson said, including regulatory, technical, legal and financial advice.
“In these first-of-a-kind sectors where we’re introducing new technologies into the market, even the best founder teams will struggle to have the full range of skills and expertise they need,” Dr Thompson told AAP.
“Low-carbon fuels is a really crucial sector, and we know that from challenges in the Middle East from a fuel security standpoint, but we don’t have any financial projects that have reached financial close.”
The federal government’s budget commitment to investigate a sustainable aviation fuel mandate would help the industry, Dr Thompson said, but proving these projects could be commercially successful would help more.
“It’s like the tomato sauce and the bottle: you can shake for a long time and finally, when it comes out, it comes out in a big glut,” he said.
“We’ve got a really good pipeline of projects, they need a bit of extra support and once we get that first bit of tomato sauce out of the bottle, the rest will come pretty quickly.”
ARENA would invest $766,000 in the accelerator to help move projects towards construction and make use of Australia’s natural advantages, agency chief executive Darren Miller said.
“We have abundant feedstocks, strong research capability and growing demand from sectors like aviation,” he said.
“What’s needed now is the support to help promising projects navigate the final steps to commercial scale.”
Qantas has announced a commitment to use 10 per cent sustainable aviation fuel by 2030, and the industry expects the fuel will play a major role in it achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
But the International Air Transport Association revealed on Sunday that sustainable fuel was on track to represent less than one per cent of global airline fuel in 2026, at 0.8 per cent or 2.4 million tonnes.
AAP