Council chief executive, Dr Tim Harrison said the Grampians Gas project was well underway, with stage two in full swing.

"Ararat aims to become Australia's rural innovation capital and this project is key in creating new market opportunities to diversify farm income and grow our economy," he said.

"The Grampians Gas project is progressing well - entering the next phase of engineering studies means we're closer to settling on a final 'Basis of Design' for the end-to-end project, that will hopefully be completed around the end of June.

"The session provided a good opportunity to hear first-hand on the mathematical and financial modelling behind the proposed straw supply chain.

"While still in planning stages, we want to encourage local farmers to get involved, get a better understanding of the supply chain design, and share their input on the project."

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Pacific Heat and Power Managing director, Dr Scott Grierson said the workshop provided a great opportunity for the project design team to get a micro understanding of on-farm practices, including harvesting and handling from the local farming community.

"The session was facilitated by two mathematicians who can now go out and build a complex simulation of the supply chain that will show us the best operating and design model for the project," he said.

"The end goal of this process is to identify the most efficient setup that will keep costs down and enable us to pass on the maximum margin possible to our supplier network.

"Exploring potential options for on-farm storage, use of stripper fonts during harvest and costs associated with managing a burn off, for instance, has been invaluable."

To find out more about the project, visit www.grampiansgas.com.au.

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