The South African Government launches the Biorefinery Industry Development Facility in Durban
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
The South African government has launched the Biorefinery
Industry Development Facility (BIDF) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) campus in Durban on 20 March 2018 (see press release,
20/3/2018). With an investment of 37.5 million South African rands (approximately
2.6 M€), the facility will support innovation and assist the industry efforts
for scale new processes from the laboratory to the commercial scale.
The facility is the third Industry Innovation
Partnership Fund (IIPF) initiative to be launched by the Department of Science
and Technology (DST) and the CSIR. The other two are the Biomanufacturing
Industry Development Centre and the Nanomaterials Industrial Development
Facility. The BIDF will work with the forest and the agro-processing sectors
and other biomass industries to improve manufacturing technologies and to develop
and implement biorefinery processes to create additional high value products
from wastes.
Figure 1. Cover of the brochure of the BIDF
The BIDF will allow to large industry and SMEs to
access to research and development services of technologies for processing
biomass. Some of the equipment at the BIDF is unique in South Africa. The
facility is home to highly-skilled chemists, engineers and biologists who are
well-versed in processes for biomass valorisation. Significant investments are
being made to train the human capital required to support the sector. The CSIR
has partnered with the University of KwaZulu-Natal to develop the required
skills and expertise that will promote biorefinery technologies in South
Africa.