Pine trees could fuel New Zealand's future

New Zealand could become self-sufficient in sustainable fuel, heat and power by 2050, according to state science company Scion.

The forestry researcher is preparing to release a document proposing radiata pines be used as a bio-ethanol crop.

The document is understood to say plantation forestry could provide ethanol to add to the three billion litres of petrol New Zealand motorists use each year. If New Zealand planted 3.5 million hectares of the species - turning the celluose in the trees into sugars that can be fermented and refined into ethanol fuel - "we could become fuel, heat, power self-sufficient by 2050," the company's general manager of biomaterials research, Elspeth Macrae, said.

She told a workshop at the Primary Industries Summit at Christchurch that Scion's "lignocellulosic initiative" had been investigating "bio-refineries" to process waste from pulp and paper mills.

Researcher Trevor Stuthridge and other scientists at Scion have been working on combining the nation's resources of radiata pine and its expertise in manufacturing Kraft pulp and paper with cutting-edge international enzyme research to commercialise wood-to-ethanol technology by 2010.

With partners in Agresearch, and wood processor Carter Holt Harvey, Scion has also been investigating whether it will be feasible and cost effective to add a bio-ethanol manufacturing plant to either of CHH's mills in the central North Island.

Scion has also been working with the US-based enzyme company Verenium Corporation, using its enzymes to enable wood to be used as a sustainable source of cellulose to refine into ethanol.

Part of the former Forest Research Institute at Rotorua, Scion has been using $1 million of taxpayer money to assess the risks and opportunities in developing different "bio-energy" options.

- NZPA