Powered by propane gas, the UTS boat "Go Bio" has won first place in the reduced emissions category of the Solar and Advanced Technology boat race held recently at Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra.

The race formed part of the Australian Science Festival and the UTS team received three awards on the day: first place and fastest lap time in the reduced emissions category, and "Best Tertiary Performance" in the tertiary institutions special prizes category.

The SolACT Smart Race is Australia's only Solar and Advanced Technology boat race, open to any craft that is driven by a non-polluting power source, except wind power. The five-hour race brings together renewable energy enthusiasts from all over the world.

The UTS boat was powered with propane gas, which has relatively low CO2 emissions ­ about half that of petrol.

Most competitors employed solar cell and/or battery driven electric boats. However, in small craft solar cells and batteries can be cumbersome and a total environmental impact analysis reveals that they are not perfect.

"Our idea is that biomass-derived fuels are worthy of promotion in this race," Engineering Lecturer Mr John Dartnall said.

"Most people think of methane gas as being the only available gas derivable from biological sources. Methane is naturally produced from animals and the normal decomposition of biological materials like animal waste, rice husks and even trees. Methane therefore does not increase the total carbon (carbon dioxide) on the surface of the earth or in the atmosphere, unlike mined fuels that bring extra carbon to the surface.

"Scientific research now indicates that similar biological production of propane may also be possible, thus justifying our use of propane as a renewable bio-fuel. Propane is also a practical fuel because it is liquifiable and stored in normal household gas cylinders. In the future we would like to consider fuels such as various alcohols and hydrogen.

"We have students studying here from Bangladesh who are looking into alternative fuel solutions to some of their transport problems. In countries like Bangladesh solar-powered boats are just not a practical solution at the current stage."

As a result of the race, the UTS team has been offered the long-term loan of a "stepped-hull" boat by Boat Craft, a Canberra company. With the new boat the UTS team intends to build a faster and more efficient outboard leg for next year, once again using biomass-derived fuel.