By Renewable Energy Focus staff

ARW says Australian mineral diesel consumption sits at just 18 billion litres per annum, half of which is imported. Due to the burgeoning mining and long haul transportation industries, the use of diesel is high in Australia.

“Biodiesel is a high growth industry and Australia has yet to reach the consumption levels of other countries that see renewable fuels as important from both from an environmental and financial point of view,” says Tom Engelsman, CEO at Australian Renewable Fuels.

“This acquisition is critical in consolidating the supply of biodiesel and giving ARW a national footprint, which is critical due to the geographic landscape of Australia.

“ARW’s three plants are centrally located to fully realise the potential of growing this market both locally and internationally.”

BPL has a plant based in Barnawartha, Victoria, that converts tallow and waste cooking oil into biodiesel.

ARW has a wide range of feed stock capacity and is actively researching and developing stocks such as algae, mustard seed, jatropha and pongamia oils as well as other lower cost non-edible feed stocks.

“This acquisition is instrumental in ARW’s strategic direction to provide biodiesel Australia-wide, and with our strong relationships with major fuel companies as well as distributors and major mining operations, will ensure that the benefits of the acquisition are realised,” Engelsman says.

The BPL facility has a capacity of 60 million litres per annum of biodiesel increasing the capacity for ARW to 150 million litres per annum.