The Price of Fuel In South Africa Continues To Skyrocket, Sasol Offers A Solution

While oil prices rise above $115/barrel industry companies are looking to alternatives. But some of the alternatives burn dirtier than oil. One of these is coal-to-oil technology. . The number one energy company in South Africa, Sasol, has been attacked by its critics for emitting huge quantities of greenhouse gasses including the particularly environmentally damaging sulfur dioxide. Critics have claimed that these gasses have been causing respiratory illnesses and all that Sasol has said in its defense is that their plants emit less toxic fumes than other plants from other companies.
Sasol says it plans to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions per ton of product by 10 percent by 2015. Sasol and many other coal-to-oil proponents say that future coal-to-liquids plants can be built with newer technologies that trap carbon dioxide and store it, sharply reducing their emissions.
Sasol's share price has more than tripled over the past three years. Analysts estimate it earned about $2 billion in the year ended June 30, about 35 percent higher than the year before -- such a sharp rise that South African authorities are contemplating a "windfall tax" on the company.
Coal-to-oil’s technology is tainted. It started in Germany in the 1920’s ad it was used to fuel the Nazi war machine in the 1930s and 1940s. International oil companies also experimented with the process but put it aside because oil was cheaper.
South Africa took a different view. The country lacked oil, but had enormous deposits of coal, much of which had limited market value because of its poor quality. In 1950, the government set up Sasol as a state-owned company and authorized funding for its first project, a coal-to-liquids facility called Sasolburg in the South African countryside.
By the time the facilities were completed in the early 1980s, international oil prices were collapsing. The project was nonetheless a success for the white-dominated apartheid government because international sanctions were restricting South Africa's ability to buy foreign oil. Sasol had become 75% privatized by 1979 and their plants managed to stay profitable by continually boosting efficiency and expanding their end products to include plastics, fertilizers and explosives.
A growing focus for Sasol is marketing its technology overseas. The company first tried to do so in the 1990s, after apartheid ended, but executives found doors slammed in their faces. Oil was trading for less than $25 a barrel at the time. "We sat in corridors waiting for meetings that never happened because they didn't even know who Sasol was," recalls Pat Davies, Sasol's chief executive.

While Sasol would charge a fee for licensing its technology, its main interest is to share ownership in the facilities once they're built because it wants a share of the long-term profits. In China, Sasol is asking for a 50 percent equity stake in the projects. A Shenhua official says negotiations are going smoothly and the company hopes to begin construction soon.
In the United States, the governor of Montana, a rebel against centralized government in his own right, has been courting Sasol. Bringing Sasol on board is critical, says Gov. Schweitzer. He says Wall Street banks want the South Africans to play a role because Sasol is the only company with a track record in the business. To woo Sasol executives, he says, he took them on a flight over Montana coal country last year.
So, while Sasol is making a killing what does the average South African citizen do in order to fight back against inflation and rapidly rising gas prices? There is a solution.
WATER4GAS is sharing information for a nominal fee which folks can use at home to put together a small assembly which instills hydrogen into the gasoline/air mixture that their vehicle runs on.
Using Water4Gas you can minimumly expect to improve your fuel economy by 30-50% or even more. With W4G gasoline is made usable so you can improve your fuel economy.
It also helps make emissions significantly cleaner.The percentage of happy customers is about 99%! Isn't it your turn now?

Article Source: http://babyboomerarticles.com

Consumer advocate, songwriter, entrepreneur and activist, GARKO, is on a mission to save you from having to invent a car that runs on water and has good news that a water powered car is now reality and is one of the best tips on what you can do to save on gas consumption For a list of current gas prices in your neighborhood email garko@startlingdiscoveries.info

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