SAA, Mango fly first biofueled plane on the continent

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report.

Sashnee Moodley:
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing, along with South African Airways and its low-cost carrier Mango, celebrated Africa’s first commercial passenger flights using sustainable aviation biofuel in July. Anine Kilian tells us more.

Anine Kilian:
The flights used sustainable biojetfuel produced from research and development company Sunchem’s nicotine-free tobacco plant Solaris, in Marble Hall, Limpopo, which was refined by fuel refiner AltAir Fuels and supplied by sustainable jetfuel manufacturer SkyNRG.

Project Solaris was launched in 2014, and was an effort from SkyNRG, Sunchem SA, SAA and Boeing to develop sustainable biojetfuel from the Solaris crop.

The SAA and Mango flights carried 300 passengers from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Boeing 737-800’s powered by a fuel blend made up of 30% aviation biofuel and 70% fossil fuel.

Speaking to Engineering News Online, Boeing director of environmental strategy Darren Morgan said that seven years ago, fuel costs were ten times what the price of fuel was today, and pointed out that in the US and other countries, biofuel was selling at cost parity.
Boeing director of environmental strategy Darren Morgan:
 

Anine Kilian:
He added that South Africa used to have a very large tobacco industry and pointed out that that industry had largely collapsed.

Boeing director of environmental strategy Darren Morgan:
 

Anine Kilian:

Morgan said South Africa had a long-standing policy of supporting renewable fuel development and that Boeing, SAA and the South African government had been working closely over the past three years, since the inception of the collaboration, to help develop further technologies and supply chains.

Boeing director of environmental strategy Darren Morgan:
 

Anine Kilian:
Meanwhile, Friday also saw the launch of the Southern Africa Sustainable Fuel Initiative, which entailed a stakeholder and sustainability plan to ensure a long-term domestic fuel supply for SAA and other regional fuel users.

The goal of the initiative is to scale up over the next several years to gain additional biofuel capacity.

If successful, farmers would be able to tap into local and global demand for certified feedstock without adverse impact on food supplies, fresh water or land use.

Boeing and SAA launched their sustainable aviation fuels collaboration in 2013, followed a year later by Project Solaris being announced as the first focus project to convert oil from the Solaris tobacco plant seed into biojetfuel.
In 2015, farms in Limpopo achieved certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), one of the strongest sustainability standards in the world.

RSB certification provided a model for expansion of Project Solaris to larger-scale production.

SAA aimed to have half its fleet using biofuel by 2022

Sashnee Moodley:
Other news making headlines this week:
Local hotel tourism rakes in R14.2-billion, despite visa gripes
And, concentrated solar plants valuable for South Africa

Despite uncertainty in the domestic tourism industry, owing to the revised visa regulations and a weak global economy, South Africa can still expect healthy growth over the next five years, PwC’s Hotels Outlook 2016 – 2020 reveals.
PwC Southern Africa hospitality & gambling industry leader Pietro Calicchio
 

As baseload plants, concentrated solar plants are highly sought after in the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, says Investing in Africa Holdings director.
Investing in Africa Holdings director Mandla Sibanda:

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.