In recent months, Africa's biggest economy has been hit by fuel shortages due to planned and unplanned shutdowns at four of its six refineries. Several years ago the country became a net importer of finished petroleum products; it now imports about 60 percent of its crude oil needs. The new plant would provide a major boost to the development of South Africa's biofuels industry, which has been held back by an inadequate regulatory regime and concerns that biofuels would hurt food security and impact food prices.
Port Elizabeth based Sugar Beet RSA is implementing the project in collaboration with the government. Roak Crew, the company's CEO, told Retuers the plant could start operating in 2014. Planned to be located in the impoverished Eastern Cape Province, the plant would initially produce some 90 million litres of fuel a year as sugar beet and grain sorghum are converted into ethanol. Concerns among refiners regarding fuel blending and feedstock could hamper development, he said. "At the moment there is no requirement by the fossil fuel producers to blend biofuels into their products, and without this happening, the industry will not be sustainable."
According to Reuters, Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said the plant would be funded by the government, as the state wanted to ensure small-scale farmers are involved in sugar beet planting to boost farming in areas neglected during apartheid. The government has a target of having biofuels contribute 2 percent annually, around 400 million litres, to liquid fuels consumption by 2013. The construction of the plant is likely to start later this year, Joemat-Pettersson said, adding that exports into Africa were an option. "We have already done the pilot, so this now is beyond the pilot stage. We are quite confident that this is going to be a successful project," she said recently.
Read the full article on www.reuters.com.
