E10 fuel for cars contained ethanol made from crops such as corn in the US, or wheat, barley or sugarcane in Australia, Paulsen said. “In Brazil, previously, they’ve run planes of flown on aviation fuel made from getting yeast to turn sugarcane into long chain hydrocarbons.”
But Paulsen said large-scale biofuel production was not economically viable without significant government subsidies or a sharp rise in petrochemical prices.
“It’s technologically feasible; the real problem is that it’s hard to be cost-competitive compared to the fossil fuel industry,” he said, noting the latter benefited from more than a century of global subsidies and highly efficient infrastructure.
Paulsen said proposing invasive weeds as fuel posed logistical concerns, particularly in terms of the difficulty of harvesting large volumes of scattered biomass without damaging ecosystems.
Moreira said expanding the diversity of bioenergy sources was critical to achieving net zero targets.
He emphasised the importance of increasing funding and interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing renewable energy solutions, calling it “an opportunity for us to come together and brainstorm ideas, exchange knowledge across the country, around the world”.
“We have to be sure about the diversification of this space … we cannot rely only on wind or solar panels,” he said. “It’s about ensuring clean energy for all people in the future.”
Flinders University’s Vincent Bulone is a professor in glycoscience, the study of glycans, or sugars, and part of the search for alternative sources of energy and development of new materials. He said the study highlighted an “emerging and promising area of research” for sustainability and land management in Australia.
He echoed, however, that implementing it would require strategic investment in the appropriate technology, infrastructure and policy.
Bulone said Australia’s regional diversity demanded a “distributed bioenergy model” tailored to local biomass availability – in this case, invasive weeds in Queensland – industry needs and community energy goals, especially in remote and Indigenous communities.
“Pelletising invasive weeds could become one of the components of Australia’s renewable energy strategy, particularly in rural and remote areas where weed prevalence and energy needs are high.”
It was not a stand-alone solution but represented a “valuable component of a broader, diversified bioenergy strategy,” he said.
