Queensland’s biofuels industry has received a boost, with emerging biofuels company SKY Renewables selecting technology solutions from Nextchem, part of the Italian engineering and technology group MAIRE, and global pure-play automation company Honeywell Technologies for its “Project Lion” development in North Queensland’s Burdekin Region.

One of Australia’s largest sugarcane-growing regions, the Burdekin offers access to established grower networks, significant biomass resources and supporting infrastructure. Beyond its potential in North Queensland, Project Lion could serve as a model for similar biomass-to-fuels developments in other sugarcane-growing regions across Australia.

L-R: Lisa Whitehead (President, Honeywell Pacific), Simon Yim (Founder and CEO, SKY Renewables) and Andrea Bonanni (Business Development Manager, NextChem) sign technology licensing and engineering agreements in Brisbane

The project plans to transform biomass into high quality chemical grade synthesis gas through Nextchem’s NX Circular™ gasification technology.

This syngas would then be converted into synthetic fuel blendstocks using Honeywell Technologies’ integrated Fischer-Tropsch offering, combining FT CANS™ technology, co-developed with bp, and Honeywell Technologies’ FT Unicracking™ technology.

These synthetic fuels can be blended to produce ASTM D7566 – compliant Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or other transportation fuels like diesel and naphtha.

Working with Burdekin sugarcane growers, Project Lion seeks to substitute traditional cane burning with alternative harvesting methodologies and, once fully operational, transform sugarcane tops-and-trash into liquid fuels including SAF and renewable diesel.

Once at full operational scale, Project Lion has the potential to produce up to 120,000 metric tons of sustainable aviation fuel per year in North Queensland, using a feedstock that would otherwise be burned in the fields. The Project can be scaled to other Queensland cane growing regions.

SKY Renewables Founder and CEO Simon Yim said the company’s selection of NextChem and Honeywell Technologies solutions reflected its confidence in the technologies’ ability to support Project Lion and complement the viable feedstock secured with local growers.

“I have always said that any biofuels project in Australia consists of three buckets: feedstock, technology and offtake,” Mr Yim said.

“SKY Renewables has been working with Burdekin’s cane growing community since 2018 to secure the feedstock bucket.”

“With strong demand-side initiatives in the pipeline from government and the private sector, in conjunction with our strong networks in industry, we are confident in securing offtakes in the near future.”

“SKY Renewables’ milestone agreement with Honeywell Technologies and NextChem fills the critical tech bucket.”

10 August 2026