Rob Mallinson: Head of Solid Bioenergy Group on its potential in aiding the energy crisis

There’s another option that could help us fill the gaps in the energy crisis: solid biofuel. 

It makes use of forestry slash, burning it to generate heat and electricity as a cheaper alternative to gas.  

New Zealand exports around 20 million tonnes of wood per year, and we would only need to divert around 30% of those export logs to decarbonise every industrial gas and coal boiler in the country, Solid Bioenergy Group CEO Rob Mallinson says. 

Mallinson told Ryan Bridge that it’s renewable, half the cost of LNG, and we need it to be part of the solution for the current energy crisis.  

He said he’s not saying it's the silver bullet, but it’s a huge potential part of the solution, especially for the North Island.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The energy crisis. We've been talking about it all week.
We've got gaps to fill when the sun don't shine,
when the wind don't blow, when the rain don't fall.
And a lot of people are saying, you know, gas LNG.
What about bio energy? Could slash the stuff that comes
from the forestry. One of our guests mentioned this yesterday.
We wanted to take a closer look at it. Solid

(00:20):
biofuels are burned to create heat and electricity generation as
a cheaper alternative to gas. Companies like Fonterra are actually
already using this technology. So how could we do it
here and what would it cost? Rob Mallinson is the
head of Solid bio Energy Group, is with me this morning.
Hey Rob, good thank you. Tell me. The one thing

(00:43):
I hear about SLASH in particular is by the time
you go up into the what wops and find the
slash and then manually get it out and then put
it in a truck and take it to some facility
to have it, it's very time consuming. What do you think?
What do you say to that?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Certainly correct? Particularly I get in the Disbone region because
it's so remote, but there's plenty of areas already recovering
it around, certainly, for instance in the Nelson region Ndrebris.
So it's of course, it's of course, that's right, You're right,
it's hard to get it out of some places. I
want to draw the attention to the twenty million tons
of logs that we export annually, twenty million tons a year,
the forestings to producer and ships. Eighty to ninety percent

(01:21):
of that goes to China, pretty low value. And we're
talking about an energy shortage, a shortage of fuel, and
we've got one hundred and fifty petter duels of logs
that were exporting every year. That's equivalent to Maui at
its peak, and it's a renewable and it's half the
coast of Lerg. So we need it's to be a
part of the solution. I'm not saying it's the silver bullet,
but there's a huge potential part of the solution, particularly

(01:44):
for North Island industry who's taking a massive hit at
the moment and now they're sitting around waiting for an
LERG terminal that may or may not happen. You know what,
prime it'll be over thirty dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
A GIGGATRP, so just burn the lungs, don't sell them
to China.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Potentially that's an option. Yeah, we could use the residue first,
of course, but then we've got one hundred and fifty
peda duels of logs. So for one hundred and fifty
million giga jewels, the North Island industry uses twenty five
million giga jels to put into contact. So we just
need twenty percent of the export logs be low. It's
value export logs which are probably going to drop off
if anyone in terms of job the demand from China
with their declining population and construction industry. So we need

(02:20):
to be finding a home for this and we need
a policy that encourages that home.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
We are we then, you know again kneecapping one industry
to try and prop up our energy sector, aren't we?
I mean, which is what is happening right now with
mythnics etc. But are we not just doing more of
the same as opposed to actually, you know, adding to
the productive capacity of the country.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, if we put in an LNG terminal, if those
twenty five million giga duels of North Filand industry demand
is met through LNG eight hundred million dollars a year
roughly we'll go offshore versus paying four hundred million dollars
to the log industry, to the forest industry keep it
on shore. It makes no sense to be putting an
l It makes no sense to be locking in a
fossil fuel when we've got one hundred and fifty petted

(03:01):
duals of renewal energy available locally every year. It's not
a declining resource. It's a sustainable resource. And all our
North onlond industry is under pressure from their cluster clients
will be decarbonized. But this can take all those boxes.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Rob you're the head of the Solid bio Energy Group.
What is that.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
It's a subset of the bio Energy Association of New Zealands.
So I just represent a bunch of people who who
want to see this this progress. People and industry. We're
a well established industry. All their sawmills and poultenoff they
all use this technology. It's just good or combustion of
biomass in wood boilers to make heat or steam. So
it's perfectly suited to meeting those heat requirements of North

(03:41):
Island industry and South Island industry and we've already adopted
about five PETTA duals in the last few years according
to ECO, the government authority. So it's happening. We just
need to hamp faster. The industry is very capable. There's
twenty different boiler suppliers available in New Zealand or boiler
tech types. A mature industry that's spential to grow even further.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
All right, Well, I would love to hear from people
out there who are in this industry whether it's a
viable alternative that we should be looking at more. Rob,
thank you very much for your time. That's Rob Mallinson,
here's the head of these solid bio energy groups. Says
we're exporting a whole bunch of logs to China and
we would only need to use twenty five percent of
our export logs to try and fill the energy gaps

(04:27):
that we've got. New Zone for more from News Talks
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