Trials to turn waste from potato farms into fertiliser and energy are underway in regional Victoria in a bid to be environmentally friendly and lower the costs for farmers. Jane McNaughton and Steve Martin of ABC Ballarat reports on this research and development project based in Mollongghip, between Ballarat and Daylesford, that aims to convert agricultural waste, known as biomass, into hydrogen.
Joe Finnegan from start-up power company MADE Energy is part of the feasibility study, and said being able to create these utilities from waste on a local scale will create a circular economy for farming communities.
“What we’re trying to do in our research, in terms of biomass and converting it to hydrogen, it really hasn’t been done in Australia before. So we probably are leading the curve,” he said. Australian farmers use around 4.9 million tonnes of fertiliser per year, and hydrogen is a major building block in building ammonia.”
Source: ABC Ballerat. Full report here
Photo: MADE Energy are focusing on low-temperature, low-pressure production to create biohydrogen | Supplied: MADE Energy