Scion Calls for “Energy Forests” on 1 Million Hectares of Marginal Land in New Zealand

Marginal land in New Zealand has been recommended by Scion to be planted with “Energy Forests”, in a bid to save the country money on importing fuel and boost the economy, but the project hinges on the development of lignocellulosic technology before it can materialize. 

Scion Group Manager Sustainable Development: Trevor Stuthridge:

"Scion's research shows how New Zealand can break this dependence [on imported fuel] using home-grown biomass plantation forests on low productivity land to produce renewable transport fuels without significantly impacting on production of food or feed. It is a highly achievable goal which would reap significant benefits for the economy, the environment and for greenhouse gas reduction and this goal could be realized incrementally, with full effect from 2035."

In a report recently released to the public, Scion suggested that pine plantations on this scale could be used to produce various resources, depending on the market pull at any given time to provide various wood products or liquid fuel via lignocellulosic enzyme technology currently under development. The report suggests that more than a million hectares of unused marginal land are available to use in the country. Scion also identified areas where the marginal land exists for this project; 1.8 million hectares in total. This might well save the country billions in fuel import costs and protect fuel prices in New Zealand from volatility; Scion thinks that the country’s dependence on imported oil could be reduced by as much as 65%. This point comes across particularly strongly as the report was released as petrol prices in New Zealand reached their highest level in over a year.

Scion has formed a partnership with Sandia National Laboratories to develop the lignocellulosic technology needed to produce liquid fuel from woody biomass. However, this technology has been under development by many parties for some time; the first attempt to commercialise cellulosic fuel production was more than a century ago. It is intrinsically more expensive and technically demanding than producing biofuel from sugars or starches due to the extra processing steps needed to convert woody biomass to sugars before fuel production. If the technology can be commercialized this project will be very valuable to New Zealand, but until then it might well be a pipe dream.