31 October saw the grand opening of the Muradel Pty Ltd plant at Whyalla. This facility is an integrated demonstration plant designed to sustainably convert algae into green crude, as a first step towards a commercial plant with the potential to produce 80 million litres of crude oil a year. For a cool video that gives you a sense of the scale of the operation (drone flyover) see http://www.muradel.com.au
It was a hot and windy day but a great celebration of the achievements of the team. The company has received extensive support from ARENA, its shareholders, the South Australian Government through BioSA, and assistance from the Whyalla City Council. Further detail is available from the company’s press release: http://www.muradel.com.au/Muradel-ARENAmediarelease.pdf
The company was formed some years ago as a collaboration between the University of Adelaide, Murdoch University and SQC Pty Ltd. Since then it has seen remarkable development including the relocation and expansion of its test facilities originally located in Karratha, and some major technical milestones have been reached, positioning it at the forefront of such developments globally.
ARI has been engaged with this project for many years and it is very pleasing to see it well and truly emerge from research mode into a fully fledged demo plant: another example of a successful research-business partnership
[Disclosure: ARI is a shareholder in Muradel on behalf of the University of Adelaide, and Rob is a Director of both ARI and Muradel]
