Australia's first bio-products plant opens

Australia's first bio-products pilot plant has been opened in Mackay in north Queensland.

The $10 million centre will aim to create fuel, plastic and chemical products from plant waste.

The centre is a joint project between the State and Federal governments, the Queensland University of Technology and Mackay Sugar.

Mackay Sugar chairman Andrew Cappello says a price on carbon would further benefit research into turning cane waste into ethanol.

"The way the ethanol's excise is going, there's probably no encouragement for people to go into ethanol in a number of years because the excise will be dropped off," he said.

"So with the link back to the carbon value, the footprint that ethanol can provide, I think that's where the incentive will come for ethanol producers to look at, especially second generation ethanol which hopefully this project will identify."

source: abc.net.au