Page 32 - Tropic Magazine Issue 16

TROPIC • COVER STORY

Q&A
Hywel Cook
MSF Sugar’s General Manager for Operational
Excellence

Tropic: What were the drivers of MSF Sugar’s
diversification into green energy?
Hywel: Sugar cane has three easily used parts;
sugar, fibre and molasses (what is left after we
remove the sugar and fibre). We can turn all three
parts into valuable products. With the changing
market for electricity on the National Electricity
Grid we have a market for any surplus electricity
we can generate. The extra revenue is important
to expand how we make money from only sugar.
This will allow for re-investment in the sugar mills
and get the mills ready to make new products
for the future such as fuels, fibre-based products
like renewable plastics and other types of food
ingredients. The green energy is the first stage of
the sugar mill transformation.

How important is water security to the future of
MSF Sugar’s operations, including the construction
of Nullinga Dam?
Sugar cane is a tropical crop which needs reliable
rainfall or irrigation to grow to its potential. Access
to reliable irrigation on the Atherton Tablelands
is important for both the existing sugar cane and
other agriculture crops but also if we want to
expand agriculture and processing industries next
the where the crops are grown. Improvements more than $300 million a year into regional economies.
to the existing scheme and the addition of the While the company’s proud heritage is in sugar, a large
Nullinga Dam will allow both the expansion of component of its future is in bio-energy. And that future has
agriculture and the MSF Sugar Mill and allow it to arrived.
be developed into a world-class bio-refinery. MSF Sugar has re-imagined and pioneered a new direction
for the Australian cane industry through the construction of
How would you describe the symbiotic a $75-million green energy power plant at its Tableland Mill.
relationship between MSF Sugar, cane growers Business Development Manager Hywel Cook told Tropic the
and the communities you operate in? mill can now operate year-round by feeding electricity into
The relationship between MSF Sugar and the Ergon Energy’s grid.
cane growers is critical to the success of both. “This is an exciting key milestone in a project which has
We need each other to both grow and prosper involved a lot of investment, research and development,” he
into the future. The development of a bio-industry said. “The power station will replace coal used to generate
needs both the growers and mill to work together 100,000 megawatts of electricity annually. It’s creating jobs
so that we can develop products and services and value-adding by using every part of the crop.”
which meets the needs of the community. The company is no stranger to such processes. For years,
This development will help in making the local its mills have been sustainably powered through the steam
community more prosperous as we create new created by burning the juiced sugar cane, a fibre known as
high-tech jobs and employ more people in the local bagasse. However, Mr Cook said the Tableland Mill project,
region. which also uses agricultural waste as fuel, is seriously upping
the ante, providing enough power for 26,000 homes.

32 • Tropic • Issue 16