Minister of Agriculture Clement Dlamini said the company, Fuel Ethanol and Agricultural Plantation, completed a preliminary study on the initiative. He said the owners of the company reflected that it would be a viable project to undertake in the country as per the findings of the study.

Dlamini said what was left as regards the progress of the multi-billion emalangeni project was to conduct a final study, which would be done soon.

“As the project will require land measuring 15 000 hectares, the company is currently negotiating for some government farms to be used as a base for the initiative. To show commitment towards the project, government has listed some farms in Lavumisa to help with the needed area,” he said.

He said once the study was completed, the ethanol project which comprises establishment of a plant at Somntongo constituency would take place.

“The ministry is excited about the progress of the project so far and it is promising. The initiative will significantly contribute to the country’s economy as close to 2 000 people will be hired. Worth noting is that farmers will be greatly capacitated once the project reaches full swing,” he said.

Dlamini said the ministry of natural resources and energy was also negotiating with South Africa pertaining a reliable supply of water. He said the factory that would manufacture ethanol from sweet sorghum was to open along the Siphofaneni/Lavumisa corridor.

 Farmers to own shares in company

Member of Parliament Doward Sihlongonyane says once the ethanol plant to be established along the Siphofaneni/Lavumisa corridor gains momentum, farmers will also own shares.

He said the consultancy firm that conducted the preliminary study on the project said the project would be sustainable. Sihlongonyane said the project was definitely continuing, adding that operations would start next year. He said the owners of the company were very keen to start operations.

“The company has had talks with the farmers of the area and they were told that they would also own shares.

“The farmers are excited about this. It is encouraging to see investors who are also interested in empowering local people,” he said.

Sihlongonyane said the farmers would grow the sorghum and supply the ethanol factory. He said besides the employment part, the communities surrounding the project area would have a reliable source of water.

Sihlongonyane said the area where the project would be based had good infrastructure which would expedite doing business. He said His Majesty King Mswati III would officiate at a sod cutting ceremony to mark the launch of the project.

Sihlongonyane said the very same company to operate the ethanol firm would be the one that would run the Dvokolwako Diamond Mine.

by Nomthandazo Nkambule

Source: http://www.observer.org.sz

This technical handbook contains the technical guidelines to start up in the EU the chain to produce energy (i.e. bioethanol, electricity and heat) from sweet sorghum.

The guidelines are applied in some case studies in Italy, Greece and Spain, in order to complete the technical description with economic and environmental data to use these guidelines in feasibility studies.

The handbook is mainly target at farmers, agricultural associations, fuel processors, SMEs, seeds and agricultural companies.

CHICAGO, Jan 04, 2012 — Chromatin, Inc., a developer of energy-crop feedstock solutions, today announced the award of a $5.7-million contract under the PETRO (Plants Engineered To Replace Oil) program of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

The award will fund a three-year program to develop new varieties of sweet sorghum for use as an energy-rich, low cost feedstock for transportation fuels.

“Building on our success deploying our proprietary technology that can add multiple sets of genes to sorghum, we are able to produce sorghum varieties that meet the specific needs of renewable-energy producers,” said Dave Jessen, Chromatin’s Chief Technology Officer. “In collaboration with academic and industry experts, this award will accelerate Chromatin’s optimization of sorghum as a feedstock for drop-in biofuels and energy-rich replacements for coal and petroleum.”

Chromatin is working to develop non-food varieties of sorghum that have higher energy content making it ideal for the production of low-cost and renewable transportation fuel, high value chemicals and a high-BTU source of biopower. Sorghum can produce tremendous biomass yields with less water and fewer chemical inputs than major food crops and on land that is not devoted to food production.

Source: http://www.chromatininc.com/

DuPont Co. (DD), the largest U.S. chemicals company by market value, has invested in closely held energy-crop company NexSteppe Inc. to develop feedstocks for biofuels and other bio-based products.

DuPont didn’t disclose the size of its equity investment, Jane Bachmann, a spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. NexSteppe, which last month received $14 million in a round of funding led by Braemar Energy Ventures, will partner with Pioneer Hi-Bred, DuPont’s seed unit.

“There’s going to be some information and data exchange,” Bachmann said.

NexSteppe, based in Malibu, California, develops breeding programs for sorghum and switchgrass, which can be converted into biofuel or burned at power plants. The company has developed sweet sorghum that’s now being used in commercial trials at ethanol mills in Brasil, Chief Executive Officer Anna Rath said in a telephone interview today.

Ethanol mills that crush sugar cane seven to nine months a year can remain operational an additional one to two months by using sweet sorghum, Rath said.

“By adding sweet sorghum alongside sugar cane, they will now be able to run those mills more months out of the year and improve the costs of ethanol production,” Rath said. “It can be harvested with the same equipment, it can be crushed with the same equipment, it can be fermented with the same yeast, so it’s a drop-in into their existing process.”

The collaboration with Pioneer begins immediately, said Rath, who declined to elaborate on specific projects or target dates for future products.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Doom in New York at jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net