{"id":8144,"date":"2012-02-20T14:19:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T12:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/s-africa-sees-258-mln-ethanol-plant-by-2014\/"},"modified":"2012-02-20T14:19:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T12:19:59","slug":"s-africa-sees-258-mln-ethanol-plant-by-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-sees-258-mln-ethanol-plant-by-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa sees $258 mln ethanol plant by 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Wendell Roelf<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">CAPE TOWN<\/span> Feb 20 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa plans to<br \/>\ninvest 2 billion rand ($258.5 million) to build an ethanol plant<br \/>\nand help a nascent biofuels sector that could reduce the<br \/>\ncountry&#8217;s reliance on imported fuel, an industry player said on<br \/>\nMonday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Africa&#8217;s biggest economy imports about 60 percent of its<br \/>\ncrude oil needs and became a net importer of finished petroleum<br \/>\nproducts several years ago.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In recent months, South Africa has been hit by fuel<br \/>\nshortages due to planned and unplanned shutdowns at four of its<br \/>\nsix refineries.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Roak Crew, chief executive at Sugar Beet RSA, which is<br \/>\nimplementing the project in collaboration with the government,<br \/>\nsaid the plant could start operating in 2014. It would initially<br \/>\nproduce some 90 million litres of fuel a year as sugar beet and<br \/>\ngrain sorghum are converted into ethanol.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Output at the plant to be located in the impoverished<br \/>\nEastern Cape province could eventually be raised to 200 million<br \/>\nlitres a year, he said, but concerns among refiners regarding<br \/>\nfuel blending and feedstock could hamper development.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the moment there is no requirement by the fossil fuel<br \/>\nproducers to blend biofuels into their products, and without<br \/>\nthis happening, the industry will not be sustainable,&#8221; Crew told<br \/>\nReuters.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The plant would provide a major boost to the development of<br \/>\nSouth Africa&#8217;s biofuels industry, which has been held back by an<br \/>\ninadequate regulatory regime and concerns that biofuels would<br \/>\nhurt food security and impact food prices.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The plant would be funded by the government, which has a<br \/>\ntarget of having biofuels annually contribute 2 percent, around<br \/>\n400 million litres, to liquid fuels consumption by 2013.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN Feb 20 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa plans to invest 2 billion rand ($258.5 million) to build an ethanol plant and help a nascent biofuels sector that could reduce the country&#8217;s reliance on imported fuel, an industry player said on Monday. Africa&#8217;s biggest economy imports about 60 percent of its crude [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}