Beet project gets green light

A project to produce 90 million litres of bioethanol from sugar beet cultivated in the Cradock area of the Eastern Cape has been granted final approval and will proceed. “We’re just waiting for the final touches,” said Sibusiso Ngubane, biofuel project manager of the Central Energy Fund’s Energy Development Corp (EDC) division.
Ngubane said a formal joint statement would be released by the partners in mid-April, amongst them PGBI Engineers and Constructors and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
The Eastern Cape project looks set to be the first large-scale bioethanol venture in the country and partners are hopeful that the plant will be constructed in 18 months. Funding is committed and outstanding matters such as signing on farmers will dictate when the project kicks off. All the essential studies have also been completed. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is well advanced and will be going into its second public participation phase in next few weeks. This precedes the submission of the final report to government for review.
A report recently released by US brokerage Merrill Lynch said the US ethanol market is bottoming out. It reduced its 2009 projections for ethanol production by 200 000 barrels/day to 1,9 million barrels. The report projected an increase in ethanol prices as government targets push up consumption against a constrained supply environment.
“Limited access to credit and low, volatile refining margins are curbing biofuel output,” the firm said. It projected that recoveries in energy prices would generally be translated into higher margins for feedstocks such as corn, with biofuel margins remaining weak.
However, it said if oil prices head north of US (R 619) per barrel, the industry could reach break even “without government help”. – Robyn Joubert
For more information visit www.biofueldigest.com.