(Business Day) State wants industry to source feedstock from small-scale farmers, writes Hopewell Radebe
The government has not moved an inch on the proposal by the farming community to include maize as an alternative crop for …

by Wendell Roelf  (Reuters Africa)  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’s reliance on imported fuel, …

by Nomthandazo Nkambule  (The Swazi Observer)  A South African based company will invest about E3 billion in an ethanol project to be established along the Siphofaneni/Lavumisa corridor
Minister of Agriculture Clement Dlamini said the company, FuelEthanol and Agricultural Plantation, completed …

by Carli Lourens (Bloomberg) South Africa’s proposed mandatory blending of biofuels with gasoline and diesel may signal the start of a biofuels industry and boost sorghum output sixfold, an economist at the farmers’ body Grain SA …

by Joelle Brink (Biofuels Digest Asia)  This week, while the world’s biofuel producers were busy ramping up production towards the 54.1 billion gallon global capacity predicted by 2015, the people who regulate biofuels and make …

by Terence Creamer (Engineering News)   Biofuels may need to comprise as much as half of South African Airways’ (SAA’s) fuel supply by 2020 if the national carrier is to avoid future carbon penalties, Public …

(All Africa)  On the eve of a major International Climate Change Conference to be hosted by South Africa, social partners and government signed a Green Economy Accord at parliament in Cape Town today (November 17, …

by Brindaveni Naidoo (Engineering News)  Electricity generation and ethanol production from sugarcane could save and create thousands of local jobs, mainly in rural areas, agriculture and property group Tongaat Hulett CEO Peter Staude said on Monday.
… …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  One World Clean Energy Inc. has secured its first memorandum of understanding to construct and commission a $115 million Integrated Biorefinery in South Africa, where it would produce10 megawatts …

by Sarah Wild  (Business Day)  Biofuels Association president Andrew Makenete says SA has the technology and resources to develop its bio-economy but was stymied by a lack of regulations and government policy
SA HAD the technology …

by Graham von Maltitz, William Stafford    (Center for International Forestry Research)    Sustainable biofuel production should provide opportunities for sub-Saharan African countries and their inhabitants, especially in impoverished rural areas. Biofuel feedstock production has the …

by Loni Prinsloo   (Engineering News)  South Africa should step up its efforts to introduce biofuels into its fuel supply mix, Toyota South Africa CEO Dr Johan van Zyl said on Thursday.
Speaking at the 2011 South …

by Laea Medley (Independent Online)  …The iLembe District Municipality and Dr Samson Tesfay, a post-doctoral student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s discipline of horticultural science, are planning a plantation project for the plant.
The project …

by Niki Moore (Bloomberg)  Southern African countries could create 1.8 million jobs if they adopted similar regulations to Brazil governing the production of ethanol and electricity from sugar, the Chief Executive Officer of Tongaat-Hulett Group Ltd. …

by Niki Moore (Bloomberg)  Illovo Sugar Ltd. (ILV), Africa’s largest producer of the sweetener, plans to start making potable ethanol from molasses in Tanzania by 2013, Managing Director Graham Clark said.
“We have created an opportunity in …

(Rainharvest)  To achieve “win-win outcomes” for bio-energy, food security and poverty reduction, we must recognise that these outcomes are possible.
This is what Prof Lee Lynd, of Dartmouth College and the Mascoma Corporation, told delegates during …

ABIC is an essential annual event for industry leaders, investors, policy makers, scientists, researchers and other professionals working in the area of agricultural biotechnology. ABIC provides a unique forum where the latest scientific advances in …

(Business Wire)  Addax Bioenergy S.A. (“Addax Bioenergy”), a subsidiary of the Swiss-based energy group, The Addax and Oryx Group Limited (AOG), announced today the signing of a loan agreement with seven European and African development …

(EurekAlert!)  Key to new possibilities for renewable bioproducts
The key to the survival of forestry in South Africa as well as many new possibilities for renewable bioproducts like biofuels and biopolymers may now be available with …

by Nicholas Bariyo  (Dow Jones Newswires)  South Africa-based AGZAM Project Developers Ltd. is planning to invest at least $251 million to develop a sugar plant and at least 15,000 hectares of sugar plantations in Zambia’s southern …

by Ruona Agbroko   (Reuters Africa)    South Africa’s Illovo Sugar may opt to produce biofuel from sugarcane if it makes commercial sense, its managing director said late on Wednesday.
South Africa’s Department of Energy said earlier …

by Stephanie Nieuwoudt  (Interpress Service News Agency)  South African maize farmers are pushing hard to change a government decision to exclude their crops as feedstock for bioethanol, in view of food security concerns.
Shortly after the government …

by Nickolaus Bauer  (Business Day)   According to visiting deputy minister for foreign trade, Brazil also wants to strengthen overall trade relations with South Africa
Brazil says its interested in buying agricultural land in Southern Africa to …

(The Bioenergy Site)  The African Center for Biosafety (ACB) has issued a statement to express concerns over the possibility of the inclusion of maize in a revision of South Africa’s biofuels policy.
ACB was prompted into action …

(Times Live) … She (MaNoa director Esmé Bluff) says although it’s not feasible for everyone, first prize is to get off the grid as much as possible – which is not as expensive or tricky as it …

by Natasha Odendaal (Engineering News)  Local general aviation company Adept Airmotive has developed the first general aviation engine that is able to power a light aircraft with a range of environment-friendly alternative fuels, such as biofuels …

by Hopewell Radebe (Business Day/Reuters) The government yesterday brought hope to grain farmers who are struggling to find alternative markets to dispose of surplus maize following a bumper crop that drove prices down.
… Last month, Grain SA chairman …

(Alternative Energy Africa)  Stellenbosch Biomass Technologies (SBMT) has been officially launched in Sandton, South Africa holding the rights to commercialize and adapt the latest conversion technology developed by US-based Mascoma Technologies.
Mascoma is rated one of the …

(Times Live)  A Durban company has unveiled a light aircraft engine which can operate on biofuel or liquid petroleum gas.
“Our technology benchmarks South Africa against the finest aviation engineering in the world,” said Andre Schoeman, chairman …