- Mining giant Rio Tinto has said that it will develop seed farms in Australia to explore the potential of Pongamia seed oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel.
- The company is also exploring the usage of biofuels in areas where electrification could face practical limitations.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has said that it will develop seed farms in Australia to explore the potential of Pongamia seed oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel.
Rio Tinto has partnered with local wood-fibre processor manager Midway to oversee the planting and management of the farms.
Pongamia is a tree native to Australia. Its seeds can be processed to form renewable diesel, an alternative that emits significantly less carbon than fossil fuel.
Rio Tinto is in the final stages of procuring about 3,000 hectares of cleared land in Queensland for the pilot project. The project aims to determine whether Pongamia seed oil can help meet the company’s renewable diesel demand.
“While we continue to pursue electrification as the long-term solution for displacing the majority of our diesel use, the Pongamia seed pilot is an important parallel pathway that could reduce our reliance on diesel in the mid-term,” said Rio Tinto chief decarbonisation officer Jonathon McCarthy.
The company is also exploring the usage of biofuels in areas where electrification could face practical limitations.
Biofuel is a fuel produced quickly from biomass rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. It can be produced from plants or agricultural, domestic, or industrial biowaste.
Biofuels emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions when burned in an engine and are generally considered carbon-neutral fuels as the carbon emitted has been captured from the atmosphere by the crops used in production.