Push to bring bio-ethanol fuel to Geelong

IT worked for Doc Brown, now Victoria wants to go back to the future and create fuel from household rubbish.

A proposed bio-ethanol plant has been given full support by the State Government to be built in Victoria, and City of Greater Geelong councillor Bruce Harwood wants to see it in Geelong.

The process which converts rubbish into fuel was science fiction in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II, which was set in 2015, when inventor Doc Brown powered his DeLorean sports car time machine with waste.

Cr Harwood, who toured a biotechnology college in North Carolina in 2008, said he would be interested in exploring the viability of the futuristic plant being built locally.

Developed by energy company Coskata, the Hollywood-inspired technology will be refined in a $400 million plant in a yet-to-be-decided Victorian location.

If successful, the plant could produce fuel from household rubbish like old cans and banana peels.

"I'm very keen to see what the Victorian Government has proposed and where Geelong could fit into that," Cr Harwood said.

"It's exactly what we've been on about in regards to making Geelong a part of the Victorian biotechnology precinct."

Industry and Trade Minister Jacinta Allan said the consortium that proposed the plant, including Holden, Caltex, Veolia and and Mitsui, had not decided on the location.

"While the consortium's investigation is yet to begin, we know that a plant that produces a more environmentally friendly fuel, creates local jobs and positions Victoria as a fuel-of-the-future producer is a concept the Brumby Labor Government wholly supports," Ms Allan said.

source: geelongadvertiser