Introducing the Wastes to Profits Project
The Wastes to Profits project aims to capture a potential market opportunity for the livestock sector in excess of AUD$100 million per year by converting wastes into valuable products.
We welcome your interest, involvement and feedback throughout this 4 year project. Please make sure to visit the website, sign up to the newsletter and encourage your colleagues to do the same. If you need more information or want to become actively involved in the project, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Project Overview
The Wastes to Profits project brings together stakeholders from across Australia’s animal industries and technology, research and development providers to deliver advanced technologies to convert wastes from livestock production and municipal water treatment into fertilisers, feeds, chemicals, and energy products for use in agriculture. The overall aim of the project is to improve productivity and profitability improvements for primary producers.
The project focuses on the following 4 areas;
- Area 1: Assessing waste streams from the livestock sector, developing business models and pathways to adoption to promote commercial application of project outcomes – featured in this newsletter;
- Area 2: Developing technologies for improved management of wastes with a key focus on anaerobic digestion and biogas production;
- Area 3: Developing technologies for the production of nutritionally-advanced feeds; and
- Area 4: Developing technologies for production of fertilisers, chemicals, plastics, and energy products.
Area 1 is featured in more detail in this newsletter below, for more information on each area please visit the website or contact us. We will provide more detail on the other project areas in future newsletters.
Project Partners
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Project Research
Each newsletter we will feature different parts of the Wastes to Profits Project research. |
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Area 1: Wastes, business models and pathways to adoption
Area 1 is led by USQ Centre for Agricultural Engineering researcher Professor Bernadette McCabe.
To better managing wastes in an industry, you firstly need to develop a good understanding of the amount, quality and distribution of wastes. Somewhat surprisingly though, information is not readily available across the sector. Our early work in the project has shown that there is varying information available on waste resources and management practices. To address this, in this project we will be consulting with people from across the red meat, dairy and pork industries and gathering data to better understand the quantities and compositions of wastes being produced in these sectors and current waste management practices.
Also, we understand the costs of managing wastes is rising significantly. At the same time, other input costs such as energy and fertiliser are increasing. However, developing profitable approaches to use these wastes and reduce input costs can be challenging. Work in this area will develop a detailed understanding of technology costs and business models with the potential to increase profits through production of higher-value products. This may include the aggregation of wastes to produce larger volumes of valuable fertilisers, feeds, chemicals, and energy products for use in agriculture.
Area 1 therefore aims to supply partners with information on the costs, benefits and opportunities associated with their wastes and the technologies being developed in the project. Understanding regulatory requirements is a key component for adoption of technologies and this will be explored also. To address this and guide the other activities around disposal and beneficial use of the products, Area 1 will also work with regulatory bodies and industry to develop risks assessment frameworks, which take a holistic view to prioritising waste streams and developing business models in the context of regulatory policy, environmental and social risks. Access to sector wide data on waste resources and waste management practices in Australia will be vital to the direction of the project, identifying key wastes focus areas and to determine realistic commercial opportunities to reduce waste management costs.
Area 1 presents an opportunity for industry wide collaboration to gather quality data on waste resources in Australia. We are currently developing surveys for each industry sector and we kindly ask all to respond to the survey when distributed in 2019. Please contact us if you want to be more actively involved. |
Our people
Each newsletter we will feature part of the Wastes to Profits Project team, which could be any individual or team from the 17 Project Partners. |
Picture: Members of USQ’s Energy and Bioresource Recycling Research Program Team. From Left to Right Andrew Hill, Bernadette McCabe, Peter Harris, Serihy Marchuk, Stephan Tait. |
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Professor Bernadette McCabe (pictured second from the left) is a principal scientist at the University of Southern Queensland’s (USQ) Centre for Agricultural Engineering (CAE). Bernadette is Australia’s National Team Leader for the International Energy Agency Bioenergy program Task 37: Energy from Biogas and is a Director of Bioenergy Australia.
Bernadette has a background in agricultural biotechnology and is an Advance Queensland Mid Career Research Fellow working in partnership with NH Foods Australia, Oakey Beef Exports. Her research interest in energy capture, resource recovery of waste and biofertilisers has attracted over $3M in nationally competitive grants since 2010. Her research has been applied to the livestock and cropping sectors (both on and off farm) and water utilities.
Bernadette regularly contributes to media outlets to boost public awareness of bioenergy and has promoted bioenergy in schools since 2007 through CSIRO’s STEM Professionals in schools program.
Upcoming Events
Each newsletter we will feature upcoming events that are relevant to the project. If there are events that you would like to see the team present or attend – please contact us.
Wastes to Profits Annual Workshop – save the date:
Date: Friday 29th March 2019
Time: 9am to 3.15pm
Venue: QUT Gardens Point Campus, 2 George Street, Brisbane |
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Key Contacts
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Chair, Wastes to Profits Steering Committee
Doug McNicholl
Program Manager, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA)
e: dmcnicholl@mla.com.au
p: 0439 275 794 |
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Chief Investigator, Wastes to Profits
Prof Ian O’Hara
Principal Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
e: i.ohara@qut.edu.au
p: (07) 3138 1551 |
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Project Manager, Wastes to Profits
Lisa van den Berg
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
e: lisa.vandenberg@qut.edu.au
p: (07) 3138 1415 |
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