Subject : Mealies SA Biofuel Choice Source : You Magazine

News : Some countries, among them New Zealand and Brazil, have produced biofuel for same time and SA recently began to make plans todo the same. Farmers have for years wondered what to do with surplus mealies. Mealie prices declined because there was too much maize available and demand didn’t increase — in other words, too many mealies, too few buyers.Mealie farmers and other experts realised they had the opportunity to use surplus mealies to manufacture biofuel.Last year work began on the first fuel-from-mealies plant in Bothaville in the Free State. When completed it will cover almost 30 hectares and be able to produce more than 500 000 litres of bioethanol a day from 1 200 tons of mealies.It’s the first of eight similar plants planned for SA and is expected to be in production by 2008.All eight should be operational by 2012.In future 10 per cent ethanol will be added to normal petrol to form a new biofuel called E10. The government is preparing a new law that will make this addition compulsorv.