The company has said that over 120 of its service stations in New South Wales (NSW), and 220 of its outlets across Australia currently offer Bio E10 Unleaded. With the upgraded terminal facilities, Caltex will be able to offer more customers, in NSW and the Australian Capital Territory, the choice of using an environmentally friendly fuel.
The ethanol component in the Bio E10 Unleaded fuel will be mixed with unleaded petrol simultaneously through an inline blending system as tankers are being loaded.
This is expected to significantly decrease loading time, compared with the previous system of loading unleaded petrol at the Banksmeadow terminal in NSW before driving to another facility at Port Botany, NSW, to add the 10% ethanol component.
A new ethanol storage tank at the Banksmeadow facility has been completed, with another larger tank due online in three months time. Together, they will provide one million liters of ethanol storage capacity. Caltex has invested nearly A$3 million dollars in the upgrade to the Banksmeadow terminal and is investing in a similar upgrade at its Lytton terminal in the state of Queensland.
Des King, Caltex Australia CEO, said: As the largest primary wholesaler of petrol in NSW these upgrades are an essential component of our plan to meet the NSW government’s ethanol mandate and our commitments under the former federal government’s biofuels action plan.
