Finding the good oil

A team from the engineering and arts faculties will develop a system to produce competitively-priced chemicals and alternative diesel fuels from second-generation feedstocks such as waste construction wood and plantation residues.

Professor Gil Garnier from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Associate Professor Damon Honnery from the Department of Mechanical Engineering will lead the three-year $1.4 million project, which has been funded by the Federal Government Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism and the Renewable Oil Corporation.

The team will develop a pyrolysis biorefinery at the Clayton campus to produce the alternative fuels.

The subsequent fuels will then undergo a series of engine and vehicle tests as well as be examined for their ability to provide carbon, energy and financial savings to ensure they are sustainable for commercial use.

Professor Garnier said the Monash team was one of only a few in the world capable of conducting the research.

"Our team has the necessary skills to research and develop alternative fuels from the feedstock right through to their point of use in a vehicle," Professor Garnier said.

Associate Professor Honnery said the research was a major step forward in the ongoing development of alternative fuels for the transport sector.

"It links the economic benefits obtainable from production of low-volume high-value specialist chemicals to relatively low value, but large volume, fuel production," Associate Professor Honnery said.