Brian Cox: Bioenergy Association Chief Executive comments on the Bio-refinery at the Marsden Point Energy Precinct proposal

A new Bio-Refinery at the Marsden Point Energy Precinct is being proposed.

Channel Infrastructure NZ Limited announces it has entered into a conditional project development agreement with Seadra Energy Inc, who is partnering with the likes of  Qantas, Renova Inc, Kent Plc, and ANZ.

It would utilize some of the decommissioned oil refinery assets which would be refurbished and reconfigured- taking up approximately 18-20 hectares of land on the site.

Brian Cox, Bioenergy Association Chief executive shares his thoughts with Ryan Bridge. “The aspect is we could use the natural resources that New Zealand is rich for. The biggest part is biomass from trees,” says Cox.

He states that it could be processed to be used as either fuel or plastic.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A new biorefinery at the Marsden Point Energy Precinct is
being proposed. This is up and never knows. Marsden Point
Channel Infrastructure has announced its enterday conditional project development agreement
with Sedra Energy. It would utilize some of the oil
refinery's decommissioned assets, which would be refurbished and reconfigured, and
it would take up approximately eighteen to twenty hectares of

(00:22):
land at the site. So it is good news some
reprieve for Northland. Brian Cox is the Bio Energy Association
Chief executive. He joins me this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning, Brian, good morning, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
I'm well, thank you. How hard is it to convert
an oil refinery into a biorefinery.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh, that's quite commonly done around the world, although normally
it's sun was an operating refinery and unfortunately this one
was decommissioned and pulled apart, so this makes it a
lot harder to put it back together. But on the
other hand, I suppose it's lately goo you know, you've
started fresh and you do different things.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Any idea how big this might be, how many jobs
that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
No, the aspect of what we're looking at here is
very early days and I don't know the detailed specific
in myself, but in general I can comment. And the
aspect of where we're going is that as we have
to replace petroleum type materials, whether it's for fuels with

(01:24):
a biofueld, or whether it's plastics moving to bioplastics, all
of these require the processing of the organics or the
biomass into a material that is then able to be
used as either that fuel or as a plastic or
any other bio based material.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
What sort of organics are we typically using?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Look, we're not sure. I don't know enough about what
they are proposing on this, and I think for my
reading of it, it's very early days also for themselves.
But the aspect is we could use the natural resources
of the New Zealand is rich for the biggest part
of course, is by a mass from trees. And you know,
a tree is a collection of chemicals that are holding

(02:11):
hands in a way which looks like a tree. We
pull them apart and we can repackage them to look like,
you know, a plastic handbag or something like this. So
the aspect is that we can look at quite small ones.
There are people around New Zealand already who are doing
this on a small scale.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Go big isn't the problem though, it's quite hard to
get to these trees, quite a labor intensive thing to do,
and to you know, drag them out of the forest
and take them down to a Buyo refinery.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, you don't actually have any option as if you
think about how if we don't have petroleum and one
day for whatever reason we won't have it or it'll
be too expensive, then what are your options? And you
don't have any other options. So it's a better of
it's not a better of cost.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, all right, Brian, thank you very much for your time.
It's Brian Cox. He's the Bio Energy Association executive officer
with us this morning talking about I mean it is
got some good news for Marsden Point, the energy precinct
that could go from oil to biomass.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
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Speaker 1 (03:21):
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