The oil mallee industry is emerging as a potential addition to dryland agriculture systems with many attributes that can also improve farming practice.
The OMA and Forest Products Commission of WA (FPC) jointly commissioned a report on the Oil Mallee industry in 2008. The report The Oil Mallee Industry Development Plan is a valuable snapshot of the industry at this stage of its development.
The recommendations of the plan include the need to improve planning for agroforestry and determine the appropriate levels of approval for certain types of forestry. For instance, the plan suggests that integrated farm forestry with a density of around 10% of a title should not require planning approval. Large scale plantings which impact on the region should perhaps be subjected to a permit system to enable monitoring of the spread of "block" plantings across shires. Several other recommendations are made to encourage a strategic approach to industry development.
R&D surrounding the oil mallee industry has been extensive over the last 15 years, emerging originally in the form of genetic selection and the search for improved yields of biomass and eucalyptus oil. The story of this development activity centres largely on investment by State and Commonwealth government, with Murdoch University investing early in the research.
The State Department of Conservation and Land Management (now known as the Department of Environment and Conservation) conducted several research programs and initiated the establishment of orchards from which they could select seed from high performing species and individual trees.
The R&D program was given a strong boost by Western Power's interest in the creation of the Integrated Wood Processing facility, a project that tested methodologies for production of energy, eucalyptus oil and activated carbon. When Western Power was disaggregated into three components of the energy chain, Verve Energy became the relevant authority for development of the IWP project. They continue today in developing "Mallee BioEnergy" and responding to the evolving policy framework that supports renewable energy.
The two principle agencies currently investing significantly into R&D for the oil mallee industry are the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FFI CRC) and Curtin University Centre for Chemical Engineering. Further details on their activities can be found online at www.futurefarmcrc.com.au and www.chem.eng.curtin.edu.au respectively. During 2010/11 OMA will be undertaking a research project with the CSIRO on establishing the default values for oil mallee plantings in different regions. This major research task by OMA is funded by DAFF (the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry) and the CSIRO is receiving funding from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
This web site has been designed principally for use by farmers, growers and students. Those wishing to know more about industry opportunities are welcome to contact the Oil Mallee Association for further information.
The Oil Mallee Project aims to develop an industry that will produce eucalyptus oil, charcoal, activated carbon and 'green electricity' as bulk industrial products from selected eucalypt species across a range of Wheatbelt conditions. The project is based on the assumption that the fastest way to increase the rate of planting Oil Mallees in a bid to address land degradation issues, is to make it profitable to do so.
The focus on oil mallees as a commercial crop is the product of a careful and deliberate screening of options. There are broad limitations to the development of commercial farm forestry in the WA Wheatbelt. The low rainfall, high evaporation rates, incidence of frost and the ancient soils of the area will limit the species selection and lengthen the rotation in much of the landscape.
The Oil Mallee Project was initiated by CALM in 1994 with support from the National Landcare and Farm Forestry Programs. A more formal growers representative body was necessary and the Oil Mallee Association (OMA) was formed in 1995.
Integrated Wood Processing (IWP)OMA and CALM recognised in the early 90's that it was going to be difficult to ensure the profitability of oil mallees if eucalyptus oil was the only source of revenue. Consequently over several years, various other products derived from oil mallees were assessed. This led to the concept of integrated production and use of oil mallee products.
The Oil Mallee Association, Western Power Corporation, Enecon and CALM investigated an Integrated Wood Processing (IWP) system where oil, charcoal, activated carbon, and electricity are all produced in a combined process. The IWP plant at Narrogin has produced electricity, charcoal, activated carbon, and eucalyptus oil, from mallee feedstock grown on farms in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia.
Potential IWP sites - Click to zoom
Fully operational plants could potentially produce 5 MW of electricity, 1000 tonnes of eucalyptus oil and 3500 tonnes of activated carbon from 100,000 tonnes of mallee feedstock material supplied annually from some 10 million harvested oil mallees.
Further details on the Narrogin Bioenergy Plant Demonstration of integrated Wood Processing can be found on Verve Energy's SUSTAINABLE ENERGY page online at www.verveenergy.com.au
Operation of a plant like this offers significant employment opportunities for rural communities. The plant will operate 24 hours per day and a fully commercial plant is likely to create employment for up to 20 people. Additional jobs will come from the planting, harvesting and transport of trees. Western Power has identified up to 10 potential sites around the state, for future IWP plants to be built. Basically, wherever there are substantial plantings, and access to the Transmission System on to the grid, there is an opportunity to build an IWP plant.
The link between Oil Mallees and carbon sinks is a very significant one. WA was one of the early states to enact carbon rights legislation and the resulting Carbon Rights Act is considered among the best. The Oil Mallee Company Ltd (OMC) a company created by the OMA to assist commercial development was the first to utilise the Act in a project developed jointly with the Kansai Electric Company of Japan to create a 1000 hectare carbon sequestration planting across 24 properties in the northern Wheatbelt.
This historic project used the integrated "belt" planting style across cropping programs which had been perfected on other properties and demonstrated the alignment with modern farming practices. This methodology was one of the first purpose grown sink projects in Australia and was visited by many farmers and farming groups and agencies. The project has become a template on which a number of carbon sink companies have developed their business models.
At the time that Australia's ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) was to be enacted, the CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) simplified the qualifications for eligibility from those which had up to that time been applied through the Greenhouse Friendly scheme for voluntary action.
The important element from the point of view of farmers was the ability to register a carbon sink project without needing to be accredited - a process which was costly and limited the number of carbon sink providers to those able to qualify in this way. The approach taken by carbon sink project managers over the last few years was traditionally by an approach to a farmer to seek access to land for planting through a lease. The lease terms vary but the conditions set for potential generation of a sink required the trees to be secured under a covenant of up to 100 years.
The OMA has warned farmers to be wary of such long-term covenants on the use of their land, but be alert to the proposals that actually incorporate an option for more active management and harvesting of the trees at some time in the future. A discussion of carbon sinks is included in the Oil Mallee Industry Development Plan.
The passing of Commonwealth legislation that set a target for the proportion of renewable energy dispatched by electricity retailers established a market in renewable energy certificates (RECs) and provided a boost to the potential for biomass as a fuel source for production of energy. The target has been raised in the last few years but the proportion of energy generated by biomass has remained very low. This is expected to change.
The combination of a price on carbon and the availability of RECs would make a big difference to the relative costs of biomass and other forms of energy. The use of wood as a source for energy is considered to be "zero rated" and therefore to have nil emissions as the fuel spent is replaced and the emissions absorbed by subsequent growth. The "base load" characteristic of bioenergy can also be an advantage over more intermittent sources in certain applications. A discussion of renewable energy is included in the Oil Mallee Industry Development Plan.
