Sasol's R70m 'clean fuel' facility
29 June 2009
South African synthetic fuels giant Sasol has opened a R70-million test facility in Cape Town, one of few such facilities in the world, in a bid to lead the development of the environmentally friendly fuels of the future.
The state-of-the-art facility is the company's biggest intervention yet to test the impact of its synthetic and crude oil derived fuels on vehicle emission and performance, Sasol said in a statement on Friday.
Within a well-controlled and safe testing environment, research at the Sasol Fuels Application Centre would aim to deepen understanding of vehicle emissions and their impact on the environment, the company said.
"We are serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions that result from the use of our products," Sasol Technology managing director Willem Louw said in a statement. "We want to help reduce emissions in ways that result in least cost to society and our economy."
Speaking at the launch, Sasol chief executive Pat Davies said the centre would showcase local innovation and home-grown technology to the rest of the world.
Sasol said it was proactively investigating the optimum mix of solutions to reduce its carbon footprint.
Whether these solutions came from its work in renewable energy projects such as solar, wind, biomass and algae power, or through its focused research in the field of Carbon Capture and Storage, collaboration and innovation would reveal the solutions for the future, Davies said.
Also speaking at the launch of the facility, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said South Africa's economic success would be shaped by the degree to which it successfully anticipated the future.
"Our future success as a country depends on our ability to develop new technologies," Pandor said. "It will be the investment that companies like Sasol make to develop a new generation of scientists that will allow us to carry on the legacy of innovation that they have in fuel technology."
Turning to skills development, Sasol said it had already trained 111 of the 900 people it had committed to train to full artisan status over a period of five years as part the Technical Skills Business Partnership.
Sasol had also committed to investing R250-million with South African universities over a 10-year period to generate the expertise that would ensure the long-term availability of world-class human resources among South Africa's chemists and engineers.
This group would in part assist in the effective execution of research and development projects such as those carried out at the new fuel testing facility, Sasol said.
Sapa
