Te Kora Hou is the name of New Zealand’s first commercial biofuel plant. Based in Manukau City, South Auckland, it is gearing up to produce more than 20 million litres of B100 biofuel annually for customers of Z Energy.
“Our hope is to get more than enough uptake from customers so we can double the plant’s production output, which it is capable of doing very quickly and cost effectively,” says Z Energy sustainability manager Emily Watt.
“If we double the plant’s output then we can also double the benefits gained from producing biodiesel here at the first mass production facility of its type in New Zealand,” she says.
The B100 product is transported to blending facilities in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty, creating more than 400 million litres of a B5 biodiesel blend.
Z Energy is calling its new B5 biodiesel product Z Bio D, and it claims it is: “diesel with 5% of good.” The company claims that using Z Bio D (B5) will reduce a vehicle’s carbon emissions by almost 4%.
In 2017, Z Energy will begin a major roll-out of its Z Bio D (B5) product across Z truck stops and retail sites throughout the upper North Island region, encapsulating part of Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Thames Valley, the Bay of Plenty, and parts of the King Country and Taranaki.
Z Energy says the project is a $26 million dollar gamble on whether Kiwis care enough, and companies that have jumped on board to support the Z Bio D (B5) project include Fonterra, TIL Freight, New Zealand Post, North Fuels, Fulton Hogan, and Downer.
Z Energy says these supporters are prepared to pay a small premium to take their little steps to reduce emissions, but the energy supplier admits it would have struggled to get Te Kora Hou off the ground without them.
Te Kora Hou will use 13% of New Zealand’s inedible tallow production, rather than seeing it exported for candle manufacture overseas. And Z Energy anticipates the opportunity to use more of this locally sourced product should demand require it.
Z Energy says it built New Zealand’s first large-scale biodiesel plant, “Because countries such as us make up 30% of global emissions, and commercial thinking requires us to view climate change as an opportunity rather than a threat.”
“New Zealand’s share of global emissions is just 0.16%, but small emitters like us together make up about 30%,” it says.
It says in business that RFP tenders are more and more likely to single out sustainability initiatives as a decision-making swing factor.
Z Energy says it believes that companies that are in action regarding climate change will be increasingly rewarded by their customers, their staff, and business partners for doing so.
Z Energy says it cannot stand for continuing to be part of the problem, and it is committed to being at the heart of climate change solutions: it says transport, which is responsible for 20% of New Zealand’s emissions, is where the country must gain ground.
According to Z Energy, creating 20 million litres of B100 biodiesel in Manukau will mean 37,000 fewer tonnes of greenhouse gases released into the environmental than standard mineral diesel product.
To put that 37,000 tonnes into context, it is the equivalent of C02 emissions from nearly 17,000 medium-sized diesel cars, or a traffic jam stretching from Taupo to Rotorua!
