Australia’s largest wheat processor gets $85 million to cut emissions

Australia’s largest wheat processor Manildra has secured $85 million in federal funding to build a new power generator which will dramatically reduce emissions.

The funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) will go towards a $190 million cogeneration generator at the gluten and starch plant in Nowra on the NSW south coast.

The upgrade will replace coal-fired power and allow the factory to run on natural gas and hydrogen which is expected to cut its emissions by 45 per cent.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor made the announcement alongside the Liberal candidate for the marginal seat of Gilmore Andrew Constance today.

“This is a very significant contribution to bringing emissions down,” Mr Taylor said.

“This will deliver affordable reliable energy for an industrial process, an important process which creates jobs.

“The process itself will create 170 jobs for this region during construction.”

Work on the plant will start by the middle of the year and is expected to be completed by early 2023.

The Manildra group is one of the Coalition’s largest political donors but Mr Taylor told reporters at the announcement that the funding was not an election pledge, despite being announced in the middle of an election campaign.

“It is our budgeted commitment that is happening as a result of the independent decision making of the CEFC,” he said.

“They have the ability as an independent decision maker to finance projects which bring down emissions.”

Australia’s biggest steelmaker BlueScope Steel also secured public funding to investigate its options for zero-carbon steelmaking.

The steel maker was awarded a grant of more than $900,000 through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for a feasibility study.

The $1.8 million study is expected to take 13-months will be run by the University of Wollongong’s Steel Research Hub (SRH).

“There are two different camps, smart carbon usage or direct carbon avoidance and there are a whole raft of potential technologies which will be evaluated as part of this project,” SRH Director Dr Paul Zulli said.

“Our intention is to work with BlueScope to identify prioritised options.

“We might, for example, start with 100 options but we will whittle those down to anywhere between one and ten which are fit for further investigation at Port Kembla steelworks.”

Mr Taylor was asked by reporters about the Greens’ plans to transition coal workers into renewable manufacturing and to outline his government’s plan for the transition.

“Our plan is to keep jobs, not destroy them,” he said.

“Our plan is not to destroy industries it is to bring down emissions.

“The Greens think that the ways to bring down emissions is to shut things.

“We think that the way to bring down emissions is to deploy technology in clever ways, which bring down emissions without destroying jobs.”

Tags: Australia, wheat, reduce, Manildra, emissions, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, CEFC, gluten, power generator