Taupo set to fuel NZ's bio future with willow

[jpak]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10384998

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BioJoule - a spinoff from listed Genesis Research - is about to ask private investors for $5 million to help to take its biofuel technologies to pilot refinery stage.
 
The "biorefinery" will be fed by the cane willow plant, grown in trials at Taupo, and powered by local geothermal steam. BioJoule wants the pilot plant running by the second half of next year.

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He calculates that 2500ha to 3000ha of salix, a shrubby, self-generating willow harvested mechanically every year, will produce enough biomass annually to make 11 million litres of transport ethanol.
 
Around 76,000ha of Taupo land could suit energy farming, he said.

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