South Africa is set to produce bioethanol from sorghum to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and mitigate geopolitical risks, officials and business leaders say.
Josie Rowe-Seitz, managing director of Blueprint Holdings, a company that focuses on the southern African market, said there is significant economic value in building a domestic bioethanol industry using locally grown sorghum and sugarcane.
He said countries including Brazil, India, Kenya, the United States and Zimbabwe have established bioethanol industries, demonstrating the feasibility of the model. He said sorghum is drought-tolerant, heat-resistant and suitable for South African farming conditions.
“We have found that bioethanol production is a viable industry. It will provide us with self-reliance, national energy sovereignty and fuel security,” he said.
Rowe-Seitz said South Africa has the necessary natural resources, market demand and regulatory framework to support bioethanol production. He said developing domestic bioethanol industry could also create jobs in agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
He said that in countries where bioethanol industries were successful, initial investment was supported through targeted public finance mechanisms and feedstock supply was strengthened through contract farming and guaranteed offtake arrangements.
Landeni Kabini, acting director-general of South Africa's Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, said the government has brought forward the legislation with the aim of removing barriers to bioethanol production.
He said officials are ready to work with industry players and other stakeholders to start production of fuel derived from sorghum and sugarcane.
“There was regulatory uncertainty, and we gazetted the rules on what the price of biofuels could be, so the industry could move forward,” he said. “As a government, we support the biofuels industry.”
Irshad Kathrada, CEO of the Localization Support Fund, said South Africa faces a major shift from domestic fuel refining to imported finished fuels following the closure of its two largest onshore refineries between 2022 and 2023.
As a result, he said, the country now imports about three-quarters of its fuel from geopolitically exposed sources, leaving consumers vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions and price shocks.
“We have a credible alternative in the near future, based on South African soil, South African farmers and commercially proven technology,” he said. “The economics are closer to feasibility than most people expect, the regulatory framework is finally in place, and the localization dividend is substantial.”
The author is a freelance journalist for China Daily.