The 3rd African Biofuels Conference, sponsored by IIR training, held last week at Vodaworld in Johannesburg, promised to be the first event to provide insights into the South African biofuels industrial strategy. The success of the South African biofuels industry is seen as pivotal for the development of a sustainable African biofuels industry. Speculation and concerns about the strategy are prominent on the minds of many businesses and many had high hopes that the event would satisfy several of the unanswered questions.
The event addressed important and relevant topics ranging from the controversial food vs. fuel debate to ethanol trade and technology, biodiesel, biomass, and ethanol production as well as CDM (clean development mechanisms) in biofuels projects. Certainly there is growing interest in the role of CDM projects and their roles in providing market access for emerging biofuels projects. A first for this conference was the SMME Workshop sponsored and organised by IIR South Africa which provided small-scale producers the opportunity to develop their business knowledge. Major sponsors with significant presence at the event were Siemens, D1-BP Fuel Crops, Absa, Uhde, and Helius.
All in all, the interactive nature of the event together with the informative sessions attributed to the success of the conference.