THE Department of Energy has finally published the long-awaited draft position paper on the pricing regulations and rules for administering biofuel prices for comment, the final step in the process in getting the potentially R15bn-a-year South African biofuels industry off the ground.

From October next year all oil refineries will be required to blend 2% of locally produced bioethanol into their petrol.

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Astudy on biofuels being undertaken by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) aims to developsunflower oil as an alternative fuel source in South Africa.
The study, which started in April this year and is scheduled to end in March 2016, aims to develophigh oil-yielding sunflower cultivars with better processing characteristics, together with better harvesting and processing practices, to improve the value chain and enable the use of this crop inrenewable-energy technologies.

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Brief historical overview of biofuels industry in SA -  Evolution of policy, legislative and regulatory development for the biofuels sector in SA. Status quo – what is government doing, how far has business invested, investment prospects, etc.

What are the challenges in the biofuels sector e.g. food security. Socio-economic benefits from bio fuels e.g. jobs,

Potential contribution to supply of energy - % contribution of bio energy to total supply

GHG emissions of bio-energy sources

Download presentation from DOE.... 

By Lauren van der Westhuizen, Frontier Market Network

Currently, biofuel is not produced in South Africa, despite extensive lobbying. As is the case with most African countries, the decision on whether to produce biofuels or not has centred on the “food versus fuel debate.” Should valuable fertile land be used to produce crops for fuel, or should its use be for food production only?

Several African countries have gone ahead with the decision to produce biofuel crops to slash their countries fuel import bill and become more energy independent. One must ask why South Africa, Africa’s biggest economy and a country with vast tracts of arable land, has lagged behind its neighbours, and biofuel production has stalled in a legislative process that seems to have dragged on for years. Resistance from petrol companies and a lack of incentives are two reasons put forward by one expert.

For those unfamiliar with biofuels, bio-ethanol is blended with petrol and is primarily produced from starch-based crops, such as corn and sorghum, as well as from sugar cane or sugar beet, whereas biodiesel is blended with mineral diesel and is made from canola, jatropha, sunflower or soya.

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The SAT Process    

The SAT - system consists of three main equipment groups  
CO2 / stack gas separation
Algae production system
Algae harvesting system

The algae production system itself consists of three components 
The photo-bioreactors (PBRs)
The mixotrophe reactors
The algae concentrator 

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Bernard Peacocke [bernardpe@mp-energy.co.za]

A doctorate study undertaken by Stellenbosch University Department of Process Engineering student Yuda Benjamin has found that the fibres of some varieties of sugarcane had the potential to boost the production of ethanol at a reduced cost.

Benjamin said a new scientific method developed as part his research in process engineering would aid the agricultural and biofuels sectors in identifying the most cost-effective sugarcane varieties for the production of ethanol.

Ethanol, which was produced from high-cost sugars, such as the sucrose found in sugarcane or the starch found in maize and wheat, was a promising alternative fuel that could potentially one day replace petrol.

Sugar cane has been identified by the South African Biofuels Strategy as having the biggest potential for ethanol production owing to its high productivity for each unit area of land compared to other crops.

However, Benjamin pointed out that one of the largest challenges faced by the sector in processing sugarcane fibre for ethanol was cost reduction.

Further, the new method could enable the use of an entire crop for ethanol production.

“Carbohydrates in sugarcane fibre (the residue left after sweet juice extraction) can be used to increase ethanol production because of its availability and the fact that it does not have an impact on food production,” he explained.

He said almost 90% of the carbohydrates could be extracted as simple sugars from the selected varieties, compared with 72% obtained from sugar cane already existing in the market.

The selected varieties also required less pretreatment and less enzymes during enzymatic hydrolysis.

Source.....

Seven years after a government feasibility study showed a biofuels industry in South Africa could create tens of thousands of new jobs, the paperwork needed to establish it remains outstanding.

Briefing MPs on Wednesday, the energy department's chief director for clean energy,Mokgadi Modise, said the original target of producing 400-million litres of biofuels a year, from the 2013 financial year on, "will be missed".

However, the country was set to produce biofuels "in excess of the originally-set annual target when the overall enabling and supporting framework... takes effect".

This framework included mandatory blending regulations and a pricing framework. Modise said the latter -- including the development, by National Treasury, of a biofuels support mechanism -- was at an "advanced" stage.

"A number of outstanding issues [and] deliverables are still work in progress due to the required technical investigation."

Biofuels include bioethanol, produced from sugar and starch crops such as corn or sugarcane; and biodiesel, produced from vegetable oils.

Incentives offered by government to attract investors include the exemption of bioethanol from fuel tax; a 50% general fuel levy rebate on biodiesel; and, a three-year "accelerated depreciation allowance" for such renewable energy projects.

Modise told MPs these incentives had not proved enough.

"These incentives have proven not [to] be sufficient to lure investments in the biofuels sector, hence the need to establish a more enabling and supportive regulatory framework," she said.

According to a document tabled at the briefing, eight companies -- with a total annual capacity of more than one billion litres -- have been granted licences, or provisional licences, to produce either bioethanol or biodiesel.

But asked after the briefing if these facilities, planned for the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, had actually been built, she confirmed they existed only on paper.

South Africa's biofuels strategy is mainly aimed at stimulating the production of suitable crops, such as sorghum, sugarcane, soybeans and canola, among others, in so-called "under-utilised agricultural areas" of the country, including in the former homelands.

According to the document, the government is also mulling options when it comes to blending biofuels into conventional petrol and diesel supplies.

Regulations in this regard were published in the Government Gazette in August last year. They stipulate that the minimum concentration of biodiesel in diesel is five percent by volume, and the permitted range for bioethanol in petrol between two and 10%.

An implementation date for the regulations has yet to be set.

Under consideration is whether such blending be done at the country's existing six refineries, at depots, or at both refinery and depots. These options would require capital investments of R278-million, R459-million and R421-million respectively.

MPs at Wednesday's briefing raised concerns about, among other things, the security of supply of feedstock crops for the biofuels sector, the cost of transporting feedstock to biofuels manufacturing facilities, and the application of incentives for producers.

Modise said estimates in a 2006 feasibility study, conducted by her department, showed the production of 400-million litres of biofuels a year, representing two percent of the country's annual liquid fuel requirement, "can create about 25 000 jobs".