Biofuel facility set to open in 2007

Renewable energy producer Axiom Energy Ltd is building a 150 million litre a year biodiesel facility at the Geelong Port.

Axiom Energy has secured a long-term lease holding for a one-hectare site and handling and storage facilities with Toll Holdings Ltd and Terminals Pty Ltd. The facility, which will produce biofuel from animal fats and plant oils, will be fully operational by mid-2007. The combined investment in Geelong will total about $50 million.

The first Victorian producer to market biodiesel on a commercial scale, Axiom is set to become the state's biggest biodiesel producer. Last year, Axiom withdrew its prospectus and refunded $37.6 million raised in an initial public offer, but will now look to reattempt listing on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Axiom has put on hold plans to build two plants to produce diesel fuel from waste plastic after being stung by a federal government decision to introduce a 38 cent per litre excise. Its biodiesel production from animal fats and plant oils attracts a grant to offset the excise until 2011, which will then be progressively phased out by 2015.