The first is SASOL, about which we have previously written (AtE Sept 74). The name is an acronym for South African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation. (Doesn't work out? Yes, it does¾in Afrikaans.) It was founded in 1950 and produces various fuels and other products from coal by first gasifying it (Lurgi process), yielding substitute natural gas, sulfur, phenols, and ammonia; the gas is then further refined by a Fischer-Tropsch process and a special "Sasol Synthol" process, producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuels, alcohols and ketones.
The advantage of the Sasol combination of processes is flexibility: The mix of products can readily be altered to adapt to the demands of the market.
This is even more true of the more modern Sasol II, built in 1974 under the impact of the oil embargo in another part of the country. Sasol III, now under construction, is a duplicate of it.
The Sasol complexes are among the reasons why South Africa, with no crude oil or natural gas, covers more than 75% of its energy needs from domestic sources, while still exporting uranium and coal. But while South Africa is now the undisputed leader of synthetic fuel technology, there are some non-technical lessons to be learnt, too.
Though Sasol started out as a government-owned company, last year 50% of the shares of Sasol I were sold to the public, and the process of de-nationalization is expected to continue for all three plants. Sasol is run as a business organization which must compete in the market; its managers claim they get only some minor tax breaks in matching the price of imported petroleum or products refined from it.
Gasoline pumps are closed from Saturday noon to Monday morning; but the more important measure to conserve motor fuel is strict rationing by the only type of rationing that works: by price. A gallon costs twice as much as in Europe, and four times as much as in the US, where governmental price fixing stifles domestic production while paying OPEC whatever it decides to extort.
But the underlying reason why South Africa has no real energy shortage is that its producers are allowed to produce¾with only modest interference from the government, and next to none from de-industrializers masquerading as environmentalists.
Yes, there are a few voices at the universities parroting the Schumacher-Lovins gospel. As in the US, they come from a few adolescents playing Messiah: Their fathers built factories, and they ponder why smoke comes out of the stacks. But the country as a whole, backs to the sea and sights on the relentlessly advancing totalitarianism on the continent, has no mind for such foolishness. And certainly what the economically retarded non-whites are most impatiently waiting for is Bwana Amory to tell them how to avoid economic growth, shun energy abundance, and make do with sunshine and wheelbarrows.
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Vol. 8, No. 2
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 8 Issue/No.: Vol. 8, No. 2 Date: October 01, 1980 04:08 PM Title: Phase Three
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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