Challenging the bio-sceptic
20/03/2007 07:23
By: Vic de Klerk
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Taking on Trader Vic
All tanked up
Only fuels rush in
Fuel or food?
Billion $ bio-fuel plant for SA
Biofuels 'won't rock' industry
BIOFUELS are on the brink of becoming big business in Africa if one
believes in some of the content of the very elaborate invitation to
next week's Second Africa Biofuels conference in Midrand.
Trader Vic will be there and he will vigorously look for investment
opportunities (and scams) for his loyal followers.
The conference is spread over four days. It will cover 6 themes over
43 sessions and there will be 50 speakers. The invitation and summary
of the program is spread over eight pages of very fine print. Wow!
This is certainly the biggest event of its kind ever held in Africa.
Even in the heyday of the dot.com boom, conferences on the potential
of IT in SA barely took up a full day. Four days and 50 speakers must
surely bring some clarity as to how and where to invest in this
budding industry.
Absa is the platinum sponsor of this event followed by gold sponsor
Infinity, which is the marketing arm of De Beers Fuel of Naboomspruit,
a small little town in the Limpopo province. De Beers Fuel claims that
they currently have the capacity to produce 6 000 litres of biodiesel
per hour.
Biofuels from algae
They have not yet identified the basic feedstock as there is virtually
no commercial farming of sunflower or soybeans in the area.
But the real potential of De Beer Fuel and Infiniti apparently lies in
its agreement with Greenfield Technology Corporation (USA), they are
also present at the conference, to provide technology to produce
biofuels from algae.
"The first algae plant was erected in Naboomspruit and was inoculated
at the end of November 2006. One acre of sunflower produces 350 litres
of biodiesel and one acre of algae 40 000 litres", claims the summary
of the virtues of the De Beers Group. Now this is some real
potential.
Last time I looked one acre was about 4 000 square metres. The algae
must therefore have the potential to produces 10 litres of diesel per
square metre. This is such a high yield that one can virtually just
siphon the diesel off with a piece of hose pipe.
The average diesel bakkie travelling 20 000 km per year, will need
only about 2 000 litre of diesel and for that one would only need a
mere 200 square metres (about the size of the average suburban garden)
of algae, and Bob's your uncle. No more diesel from the blue pump for
me?
Algae diesel
Trader Vic will most certainly on behalf of his loyal follower's
research this opportunity next week. I was born, brought up and
schooled in Naboomspruit. I visited the town last Sunday but nobody
could point me in the direction of the algae farm of De Beer Fuels.
I know Naboomspruit is a particularly dry area especially this time of
year, but with such production potential I am sure one can sacrifice
the odd shower and rather tend your little patch of algae.
Fin24 will immediately dispatch a photographer to Naboomspruit if Frik
de Beers allow us to take pictures of the algae farm and production. I
will personally buy a couple of litres algae diesel to try in my
bakkie.
A lot has been written on the absence of meaningful progress at the
ethanol plant of Ethanol Africa in Bothaville the past week. I was
even honoured last week with a personal visit by Joe Kruger, the MD of
Ethanol Africa.
Kruger confirmed that the contract for the erection of the plant at a
fixed price of about R1bn is not yet in place. He also confirmed that
the finance for this project has also not yet been obtained.
Big saviour of the maize industry
He also predicted that the local maize price will decline to bring it
more or less in line with the Chicago price of about R1 200 per ton.
At that price the ratio between one ton of yellow maize and a barrel
of crude of just below 3 to 1 will be the same in SA as in the USA,
where corn (we called it maize in SA) is extensively used for ethanol
production.
The farmers will not be very impressed with this prediction of Kruger
as they saw in Ethanol Africa the big saviour of the maize industry.
Johan Hoffman, the CEO of Ethanol Africa, and his friend Gregor
Paterson-Jones of Sterling Waterford will both present papers at the
conference apparently on the viability and financing of an maize to
ethanol plant in SA.
This should clarify all the uncertainly about the plant at Bothaville
for the farmers that have invested R24m in the project to date a well
as other business people in Bothaville that are eager to invest in the
spin-offs of the plant.
Fill up with Sasol
Trader Vic, who is from farming stock himself, is really looking
forward to the opportunity to add a few litres of Bothaville "woema"
to the tank of his car and drive safely back to Gauteng before the end
of next year.
A prospectus with clear assumptions on the viability of Ethanol
production in SA would also be very welcome.
Hopefully I will be in a better position after the elaborate
conference on Biofuels next week to advise in more detail on the
investment and other opportunities in this industry.
In the meantime fill up with Sasol (that refers to both fuel and
shares) and don't kill the algae in your swimming pool
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