Optimal Green Fuels

According to McKinsey & Company, the global demand for sustainable fuels (including Green Liquid Fuels or GLFs) could quadruple by 2050 to up to 600 Mt/pa, driven by demand from hard-to-abate applications, notably road transport, marine, and aviation sectors. While the Australian market for renewable liquid fuels lacks some of the policy certainty and government stimulus programs of European and US markets, local demand from these sectors is increasing. These sectors are unlikely to be able to fully electrify as the energy system continues to decarbonise.

GLFs can include fuels such as biodiesel, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), Methanol, Dimethyl Ether (DME), and Green LPG.

Green hydrogen, which has attracted significant industry and government attention, is a key feedstock to the production of many Green Liquid Fuels. The cost of hydrogen produced through electrolysis (a prominent method of green hydrogen production) is unlikely to reach the competitive cost of production needed to produce cost-effective GLFs without significant subsidies. However, in some applications, the cost of green hydrogen and other gases derived from biomass can produce a sufficiently low cost of feedstock to produce competitive renewable fuels.

For example, agricultural waste such as straw, manure, wood chips, paunch, crop trash, animal bedding, etc., along with tyre and forestry waste can be put into a pyrolysis reactor to produce syngas, which can replace natural gas in boilers and burners and can be upgraded to rDME to be used as a drop-in replacement for diesel, propane and other fossil-derived liquid fuels.

Optimal Green Fuels is planning to build five green fuel processing plants in Australia before 2032. Learn more about Optimal Green Fuels.

What is Optimal Green Fuels (OGF)?: Optimal Green Fuels is an Australian renewable fuels developer that recovers and processes forestry and agricultural residues to produce renewable fuels for hard-to-abate sectors of the economy. OGF's vision is to become Australia's leading developer, owner, and operator of renewable green liquid and gaseous fuels, including biomethane, dimethyl ether (DME), and bio-propane. By converting low-value biomass into valuable fuels and by-products, OGF aims to help decarbonise sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as industrial heat and transport.
How does OGF produce renewable fuels?: OGF uses a pyrolysis process to convert biomass residues into two primary outputs: biochar and syngas. During pyrolysis, biomass is heated in a low or no-oxygen environment. Water is first driven off, followed by a volatile gas stream (syngas), while the remaining material decomposes into solid carbon (biochar). The syngas is then cleaned and processed through a two-stage catalytic process to produce renewable DME, or it can be used as a source of biomethane. This creates a circular economy platform that turns waste into revenue.
What is renewable dimethyl ether (rDME) and why is it important?: Dimethyl ether (DME) is a renewable fuel that can be synthesised from syngas produced via the pyrolysis of woody biomass such as straw, maize stover, wood chips, and forestry residues. DME is fully interchangeable with LPG and can be used either as pure DME or blended with LPG, with little to no change to existing infrastructure. Because DME is derived from biogenic material, combusting it is considered net-zero emission, consistent with IPCC guidelines. This makes it an attractive "drop-in" renewable replacement for fossil LPG and diesel, and it also has applications as a renewable chemical feedstock.
What feedstocks does OGF use?: OGF sources under-utilised organic agricultural and forestry residues, most of which are currently sent to landfill, composted, land-spread, left, or burnt off in the field. Suitable feedstocks include straw, forestry residues, wood, maize stover, nut shells and pips, animal bedding, and even tyre waste. By diverting these residues, OGF not only creates valuable fuels but also helps avoid environmental risks such as emissions, fire hazards, and local pollution. Australia has significant volumes of stranded biomass well suited to pyrolysis.