Wilmar Sugar has announced the opening of applications for their 2022 apprenticeship round this Saturday July 10, calling on the next generation of apprentices to get their resumes ready.
With a variety of jobs on offer, applicants will have the opportunity to choose from apprenticeships in diesel fitting, electrical, fitting and turning, and fabricating trades, to be placed across any one of Wilmar’s eight sugar mills and bioethanol distillery.
Katelyn Smith, a first-year fitting and turning apprentice stationed at the Victoria Mill near Ingham, said she changed to an apprenticeship after six years of following a different career path and was glad she made the decision.
“I started as a fiber chemist at Victoria Mill. Through that, I spoke to some tradesmen and fitters, and I got to see the type of work they were doing,” Ms Smith said.
“I really like Wilmar’s safety values, so knowing you will come home safe every day.”
Wilmar Sugar apprentices.
First year fitting and turning apprentice, George Burns, said his apprenticeship gave him the opportunity to attain skills he had always wanted to learn.
“I grew up on a farm and used to pull machinery apart and put it back together, just never correctly, so this field will help me understand how it goes back together,” Mr Burns said.
“Most of the work in the mills is done in-house. You do it and you learn from that hands-on experience.” https://1331732b2f5274d3dc9a7ff7a06f6a6b.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Wilmar have said the applications will remain open for three weeks, closing on Sunday August 1.
Training superintendent, Daniel Shipard said they are very proud of their apprenticeship program, and the level of interest they have received in the past.
“We currently employ about 130 apprentices across various trades,” Mr Shipard said.
“The four main trades that we focus on are fabricating, fitting and turning, electrical and diesel fitting.
Mr Shipard said the application is to be completed online and its fairly straightforward.
Sugar Research Australia has announced the investment in multiple new research projects that will drive productivity, profitability and sustainability in the Australian sugarcane industry.
These new investments have targeted specific areas and issues that require solutions for growers and millers, with the new investments having been selected following a rigorous assessment process over the last few months.
SRA CEO Roslyn Baker said the new investments were aligned to the five Research Missions within SRA’s new Strategic Plan and involved extensive collaboration with investment and delivery partners.
“A key element of SRA’s new strategy is that SRA will collaborate more strongly than ever before – and we can see that clearly through these new project investments,” she said.
New and recent project investments include:
Project name
Lead delivery agencies
Summary
Investment agencies
E-network for rail-based cane transport systems
Advisian Pty Ltd (lead); The University of NSW; Mobility Thinking Pty Ltd
The development of a monitoring and communication system, operating across the sugar cane rolling stock and rail network, will seek to increase efficiency, improve safety, and reduce costs.
SRA
Environmental DNA Technologies and Predictive Modelling for Rapid Detection and Identification of Sugarcane Priority Pests and Diseases
Enviro DNA Pty Ltd; SRA
This project builds on pest surveillance and in-field testing techniques to improve the ability of those undertaking Northern Australian sugar pest surveillance activities to identify pest incursion threats quickly and accurately.
SRA and DAF Queensland
Transformational crop protection – Innovative RNAi biopesticides for management of sugarcane root feeding pests
University of Queensland; SRA
This project aims to deliver a proof-of-concept demonstration for the BioClay/BenPol platform targeting root feeding pests of sugarcane including cane grubs and soldier flies.
SRA and DAF Queensland
Sugar Industry Diversification Opportunities Investigation Support
Procom Consultants Pty Ltd
This project will investigate the potential application of two sugarcane biorefinery opportunities (hydrogen production from bagasse and compostable bioplastic production from cane juice) and identify any investment barriers to their application.
SRA and DAF Queensland
A Common Approach to Sector-Level GHG Accounting for Australian Agriculture
CSIRO
This project will develop a common approach for greenhouse gas accounting that is shared by agricultural commodity sectors, via a collective action process.
SRA + 9 other RDCS; DAWE, West Australia DPIRD & CRSPI (via Agriculture Innovation Australia)
Environmental Risk Assessment & Life Cycle Assessment of the Raw Sugar Manufacturing
Integrity Ag & Environment Pty Ltd
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a standardised method for quantifying the environmental and potentially human health impacts of the inputs, outputs, and emissions across all relevant phases of a product life cycle. The purpose of this LCA project is to help the industry better understand, benchmark, and improve its environmental contribution to human health, environment, ecosystem quality and resource use, including waste management.
SRA and DAF Queensland
Beyond Imidacloprid – Chemical and Biorational Alternatives for Managing Canegrubs
SRA
With the only canegrub control compound (imidacloprid) at the risk of being withdrawn from the market, this project will (if successful) generate efficacy and runoff data that is required to support the registration of alternative compounds for the canegrub control.
SRA and DAF Queensland
Engineering bacterial enzyme secretion for cellulose utilisation
Queensland University of Technology
This project aims to develop microbial technology to reduce the cost of extracting fermentable sugars, which could lead to the creation of a bacterium that can directly extract sugars from lignocellulosic biomass and convert them into biochemicals.
SRA
Maximising cane recovery through the development of a harvesting decision-support tool
SRA andDAF Queensland
This project will provide an online platform that helps growers and contractors look at the potential gains associated with improved harvesting practices, and costs, and then examine the costs of harvesting.
Chemical engineering students from the University of Queensland (UQ) have helped investigate how sugarcane could be used as a clean energy source to create hydrogen.
Professor Damien Batstone of UQ’s Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information
Technology, said bagasse, or sugarcane pulp, and other agricultural residues were an abundant resource that could generate ‘green’ or carbon-negative hydrogen at scale.
Biomass from crushed sugarcane stalks and leaves could also potentially produce hydrogen for under $3 per kilogram, one third of the cost of current options, he added.
Last year, 150 students in 36 teams were tasked with designing a process to produce hydrogen gas from bagasse with either thermal gasification or hydrothermal gasification as their process.
Generating pure hydrogen
Caitlin Welsh, a chemical and materials engineer who has a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from UQ, and her team, were responsible for designing a thermal gasification process for an input of 2000 t/day of bagasse.
“I was allocated the pre-treatment node where I was required to design units to heat and dry the bagasse in preparation for gasification,” she said.
“Part of my role was to ensure the bagasse was pre-treated to ensure highest possible efficiency. I needed to do this while ensuring the pre-treatment node did not counter the energy savings in the gasifier.
“So, I applied energy integration in my design by utilising steam produced downstream in my pre-treatment for heating of bagasse.”
Welsh, who is currently working at Visy Board as a graduate engineer, said that, with thermal gasification, there will always be by-products such as ash, tar, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gas.
“The hydrogen can, however, be extracted and the by-products captured in the downstream process,” she said.
Eva I Iong Lam, who also has a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from UQ, and her team were involved in the cutting-edge hydrothermal gasification process.
“It is similar to that of thermal gasification, except it involves wet biomass,” she said.
“Not only does it save energy in the drying of bagasse, but it also allows for lower operating temperatures with the possibilities to utilise a variety of biomasses as feedstocks.”
Eva I Iong Lam and Caitlin Welsh helped investigate the use of sugarcane to produce hydrogen.
A graduate chemical engineer who now works at Engeny Water Management, I Iong Lam said the slurry was fed into the reactor, then produced a supercritical fluid where its heat energy was integrated with other processing units through a series of heat exchangers.
“Hydrogen is produced more readily under supercritical water conditions in this process,” she said.
“The gases were then separated by chemisorption using Methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) solvent.”
The models she created were also able to recover the majority of water present in the gas streams using flash tanks, so it could be repurposed within the plant.
“A key challenge was the limited availability of materials that could withstand high temperatures and pressures,” I Iong Lam said.
“I chose stainless steel 316 as the construction material for a flash tank receiving supercritical fluids as it has excellent resistance to corrosion, thermal and pressure stress.”
A future biomass technology
While gasification has been widely applied to coal processing, it has not been applied to hydrogen production from biomass at large scale, Batstone said.
“This offers an alternative pathway with potential for higher profits for canegrowers, and for sugarcane to be used in ethanol and plastic production, while fully utilising the biomass residues,” he said.
Welsh hopes that her career will include further involvement in sustainable engineering solutions, while I Iong Lam wants to continue to focus on water consulting.
“You get clean water by just turning on a tap, we never really spend a moment to appreciate the processes and people behind it,” she said. “Now, I am hoping to make a positive difference to the community I live in.”.
To develop the work done by the students, a future project by UQ will involve growers, sugar companies and likely end-users and include governments investing in a hydrogen economy.
Bioenergy from crops is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. New crops such as energycane can produce several times more fuel per acre than soybeans. Yet, challenges remain in processing the crops to extract fuel efficiently.
Four new studies from the University of Illinois explore chemical-free pretreatment methods, development of high-throughput phenotyping methods, and commercial-scale techno-economic feasibility of producing fuel from energycane in various scenarios.
The studies are part of the ROGUE (Renewable Oil Generated with Ultra-productive Energycane) project at U of I. ROGUE focuses on bioengineering accumulation of triacylglycerides (TAGs) in the leaves and stems of energycane, enabling the production of much more industrial vegetable oil per acre than previously possible.
“The productivity of these non-food crops is very high per unit of land. Soybean is the traditional crop used for biodiesel, but we can get higher yield, more oil, and subsequently more biofuel from lipid-producing energycane,” says Vijay Singh, Founder professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) at U of I and co-author on all four papers.
Biofuel production from crops involves breaking down the cellulosic material and extracting the oil in a series of steps, explains study co-author Deepak Kumar, assistant professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) and adjunct research scientist at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at U of I.
“The first step is to extract the juice. That leaves bagasse, a lignocellulosic material you can process to produce sugars and subsequently ferment to bioethanol,” Kumar says.
“One of the critical things in processing any lignocellulosic biomass is a pretreatment step. You need to break the recalcitrant structure of the material, so enzymes can access the cellulose,” he adds. “Because energycane is a relatively new crop, there are very few studies on the pretreatment and breakdown of this bagasse to produce sugars, and to convert those sugars into biofuels.”
The pretreatment process also yields some unwanted compounds, which inhibit enzymes that convert the sugar into biofuels. The U of I researchers investigated the best pretreatment methods to maximize the breakdown while minimizing the production of inhibitors. Typically, the pretreatment process uses chemicals such as sulfuric acid to break down the biomass at high temperature and pressure.
“We use a chemical-free method, which makes it more environmentally friendly,” Kumar explains. “Furthermore, harsh chemicals may alter the oil structure or quality in the biomass.”
The researchers tested their method using nine different combinations of temperature and time intervals. They were able to achieve more than 90% cellulose conversion at the optimal conditions, which is equivalent to results from chemical pretreatment methods.
The second study built on those results to further investigate the relationship between temperature, inhibitor production, and sugar recovery.
“We pretreated the lignocellulosic biomass over a range of different temperatures to optimize the condition for minimal inhibitor generation without affecting the sugar recovery. Then we added cryogenic grinding to the process,” says Shraddha Maitra, postdoctoral research associate in ABE and lead author on the study.
“In cryogenic grinding, you treat the bagasse with liquid nitrogen, which makes it very brittle, so upon grinding the biomass fractures easily to release the sugars. This further increased sugar recovery, mainly xylose, by about 10% compared to other refining processes,” Maitra explains.
Other industries use similar methods, for example for spices and essential oils, where it is important to preserve the qualities of the product. But applying them to biofuel production is new.
In a third study, Maitra and her co-authors investigated time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to determine the stability and recovery of lipids by monitoring changes in total, bound, and free lipids after various physical and chemical feedstock preprocessing procedures.
The research team’s fourth study investigated the commercial-scale techno-economic feasibility of engineered energycane-based biorefinery. They used computer modeling to simulate the production process under two different scenarios to determine capital investment, production costs, and output compared with soybean-based biodiesel.
“Although the capital investment is higher compared to soybean biodiesel, production costs are lower (66 to 90 cents per liter) than for soybean (91 cents per liter). For the first scenario, processing energycane had overall slightly lower profitability than soybean biodiesel, but yields five times as much biodiesel per unit of land,” says Kumar, the lead author on the study.
“Energycane is attractive in its ability to grow across a much wider geography of the U.S. south east than sugarcane. This is a region with much underutilized land, yet capable of rain-fed agriculture,” says ROGUE Director Steve Long, Ikenberry Endowed Chair of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois.
“As a perennial, energycane is suitable for land that might be damaged by annual crop cultivation. Our research shows the potential to produce a remarkable 7.5 barrels of diesel per acre of land annually. Together with co-products, this would be considerably more profitable than most current land use, while having the potential to contribute greatly to the national U.S. goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This proves how valuable it is to build on the successes already achieved in bioengineering energycane to accumulate oils that are easily converted into biodiesel and biojet,” Long states.
The Bundaberg Regional Council has released its 2021-2022 Budget which has delivered more pain for Bundaberg farmers and ratepayers in general.
Dubbed by Council as “responsible” the special budget meeting slapped a 1.9% general rate rise on all Bundaberg Ratepayers, which is on top of the up to 235% increases gouged from Category 9 rural ratepayers in last year’s budget.
The budget was passed with only one dissenting vote from Cr Greg Barnes who raised his concern that the unjustified increases to Category 9 rural rates had not been addressed in this year’s budget nor had all requested budget information been provided to Councillors before the budget vote was held.
In response, Finance portfolio spokesman Cr Steve Cooper stated that:
“We considered representations from Dean Cayley and Tom Marland to give Canegrowers a $2.6m special deal but felt this would have been unfair to all other ratepayer categories, specifically residential ratepayers, mums and dads, pensioners and small business operators whose valuations didn’t increase last year,” Cr Cooper has said.
The Bundaberg Farmers consortium made up of CANEGROWERS Isis, Bundaberg CANEGROWERS, Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers and Agforce are uncertain why “Canegrowers” have been deliberately targeted by Council when all agricultural representative groups in the Bundaberg region have raised concerns with last years unjustified rural rate rises.
The Bundaberg Farmers consortium is also uncertain that it was a “special deal” to ask Councillors to do their jobs properly and comply with the State Governments Rating Guidelines.
To justify Councils unjustified attack on the Bundaberg farming community, Cr Cooper has sought to defend Councils conduct by stating:
“If non-agricultural ratepayer who didn’t have the benefit of increased equity were left to pick up this bill it would have been an increase of about $59 per household, or an additional 1.75 per cent general rate increase.”
“We don’t think there is anything special about requesting that Councillors do their jobs properly” said Peter McLennan from CANEGROWERS Isis.
“I’m not sure why they have targeted Canegrowers – all farming groups in the Bundaberg region are resolute about the unjustified increases to Category 9 ratepayers” said Joe Lyons of Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers.
“It’s interesting that Councillor Cooper makes no mention of the “special deal” done between the Mayor and the CEO to provide a pay increase during the COVID lock-downs and at the same time putting a pay freeze on council workers” said Tom Marland of Agforce.
“He also makes no mention of the $2 million odd Council spend on their propaganda machine Bundaberg Now” said Mr Marland.
“At the same time Council were crying poor and passing on their mismanagement to our hard working farmers the Mayor was handing out pay rises to his mates” said Dean Cayley of Bundaberg CANEGROWERS.
“It appears Cr Cooper still doesn’t know how to do his job properly because the laws clearly state that an increase in the value of someone’s land or their capacity to pay cannot be used as justification to put up their rates” said Peter McLennan.
“Rates increases can only be justified by an increase in services and for many farmers those services were non-existent to start with and the rates increases just added insult to injury” said Mr Lyons.
“House prices have increased in Bundaberg and Bargara during COVID – it will be interesting to see if Council are game enough to not adjust the cents in the dollar on residential properties when the valuer general does his reassessment,” said Mr Marland.
“Rather than having a few thousand farmers and council workers knocking at their doors they might see a few more Bundaberg residents realising that this Council is out of control with their spending and fiscal mis-management,” said Mr Cayley.
Irrigators on the Bundaberg water supply scheme are coming to terms with their recently announced allocations (AA) for the 2021-22 water year.
With recent rainfall recorded across the Wide Bay region over the weekend, some growers were rewarded with widespread falls and inflows into their on-farm dams.
The rain arrived just after Sunwater released a statement on Friday July 2, announcing medium priority allocations for the Burnett sub-scheme, other wise known as Paradise Dam, are 22 per cent.
Medium priority allocations for the Kolan sub-scheme (Fred Haigh Dam) are 98pc, while high priority allocations for both sub-schemes are 100pc.
The AA for Bundaberg growers is slightly higher than the 14 and 17pc prediction Sunwater released back in June.
A spokesperson for Sunwater said the 2021-22 water year allocations cannot decrease as dam capacity levels reduce.
“It is important to note that should inflows occur allocations can increase to a maximum of 100 per cent, as they did during the 2020-21 water year,” the spokesperson said.
“We understand the significant pressure drought conditions are having.
“Over the last 24 months the Burnett has seen some of the lowest rainfall on record for the region. Across the catchment, prevailing dry conditions have impacted all Sunwater water storages.
“Sunwater is hopeful the rainfall forecast in coming days delivers inflows to water storages in the Bundaberg region, and provides a boost to the announced allocations.”
Sunwater said it will continue to work with customers to ensure there is as much water available as possible for irrigators and the community.
Bundaberg businesses feel impact
Irrigators and business owners in the Bundaberg region fear the district will be plunged back into the economic stagnation of the 1990s and early 2000s after the formal release of the announced allocations.
Local business owner, Tony Denton, Adds Up Engineering, has operated an engineering business in the Bundaberg region for 23 years and employs almost 20 staff.
Mr Denton said he remembers how tough it was in this area before Paradise Dam was built back in 2005.
“In the 1990s and early 2000s, in particular, things got really tough due to low water allocations for local farmers,” Mr Denton said.
“To learn that in 2021 farmers have been given an AA of 22pc, it’s like a bad dream”.
“My business relies on building equipment for farmers. If farmers are struggling it puts a lot of pressure on my business to keep my 20 staff in a job.”
Mr Denton paid $1.4 million in wages last year including pay roll tax, but if things continue to slow down he fears jobs will be lost.
“People may not realise it yet, but Bundaberg is about to go through another tough time because the low water allocation farmers are receiving from Paradise Dam will have a big impact on local jobs and local spending,” he said.
“To be brutally honest, jobs will be lost in my business if farmers stop ordering new equipment.”
AA HISTORY: This graph showcases the historically low announced allocations which Bundaberg growers from 1995-2003 faced.
Back to the future for farmers
Local agribusiness lawyer, Tom Marland, is running the class action against the state government over the mismanagement of Paradise Dam.
Mr Marland said the AA from Sunwater feels like a scene from ‘Back to the Future’.
“Sadly, local farmers will be forced to irrigate like they did in 1999, when the AA in July was just 20pc,” Mr Marland said.
“Local records show that from 1995 to 2002 the AA in July were between 5 and 35pc, with the exception of 1996 when the AA in July was 50pc.
“Growers are going to experience major income losses on a 22pc AA and those are the kinds of losses we will be seeking to claim in the class action”.
