Fuel firm Ethanol Africa plans to build a string of maize-to-ethanol plants in South Africa at a total cost of about $1 billion, partly pegged on the hope that new laws that could make its product mandatory.

Ethanol Africa aims to cash in on a global drive for cleaner fuels under which South Africa plans to use biofuel oil blends.
An energy department team will decide whether to propose bio-fuels as mandatory or voluntary for blending oil. High oil prices have also fuelled the search for a cheaper energy source, officials behind the project said.
Johan Hoffman, Ethanol Africa’s chief executive, was quoted by Reuters as saying the country could make ethanol mandatory to provide 10 per cent of the fuel mix to achieve a 30 per cent cleaner burning fuel.
“We believe it is going to be made mandatory to be used as a blend, and even if there is no regulatory blending of ethanol, we plan to export what we produce,” he said.
Europe, which already has mandatory use requirements for ethanol, would be a target for the exports, he said.
Hoffman said a group of 200 South African maize growers had taken up a minor stake in Ethanol Africa, through Grain Alcohol Investments, which is made up of farmers who have pledged thousands of tonnes of maize a year to pay for their stake in the firm.
Maize farmers hope the project can reap benefits by converting their surplus output into ethanol, to avoid losses caused by overproduction.
Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is on its way to trading like a mainstream world commodity as soaring prices for crude oil and gasoline push consumers to use more “green” fuels produced from renewable resources like sugar, corn and soybeans.
At full capacity, Ethanol Africa’s eight plants would provide about 10 per cent of pump fuel requirements in Africa’s biggest economy, the company said.
At current prices, ethanol will be cheaper than oil blends.   “We have a tax rebate of 40 per cent from government on biofuels, so it will be cheaper than petrol,” said Hoffman.