Australia Gets Tanked with Tequila Biofuel

Creativity is blooming in the world of alternative energy, with people coming up with incredible ways to use what they’ve got handy. We’ve heard of New Zealand transforming pest plants into airplane fuel, Oslo buses running on the power of human waste and Scotland making fuel from whisky. Now, Australian farmers are realizing that agave, the plant used to make tequila, grows just as well in their country as it does in Mexico and has high concentrations of sugar that can be converted into ethanol.

From Treehugger:

Don Chambers, entrepreneur behind the South Australian based Ausagave company has been doing his homework on agave for the past four years. Whereas he reckons sugar cane averages a yield of 9,500L per hectare per annum, he is confident that agave’s yields are more like 10,000 to 16,000 litres of ethanol per hectare per annum.

And being a succulent, agave is tough enough to survive temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122°F), which given Australia’s rising thermometer will be a good thing indeed.

“It can grow basically in the desert,” he said. “We’ve been doing trials here in South Australia, and it doesn’t die without water, it can withstand extremes of temperature, it wouldn’t be as subject to storms like some of the crops like cane are. If you compare it with [sugar] cane and corn, it does have less operational costs and it can grow in very marginal land.”

Australia, which is suffering an intense drought, needs to focus on plants that thrive in hot, dry environments – so agave is perfect. It can be grown on bare mining lands, so it won’t take up valuable space needed for other crops. Ausagave reportedly has 10,000 plants ready for a trial.

And, who knows – maybe Australia can use this opportunity to start up their own tequila industry. Because the world can never have too much tequila.

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Flickr user kretyen

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