INTERNATIONAL – Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder developed a low-cost, high-performance battery chemistry that could one day realize scalable grid-level storage for wind and solar energy, thus reducing people’s reliance on fossil fuels. The study published on Thursday in the journal Joule reported two flow batteries using chromium and organic binding agents to achieve exceptional voltage and high efficiencies. Renewable energy is currently lacking a large-scale solution for storing harvested energy and re-deploying it to meet demand when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. The…
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Kenya to use blockchain to boost food security
NAIROBI – Kenya plans to use block chain technology to boost food security, a senior government official said on Thursday. Joe Mucheru, cabinet secretary in the ministry of Information Communication and Technology (ICT), told journalists in Nairobi that technology such as artificial intelligence can be used to track agricultural produce from end-to-end from seeds to marketplace. “We will also be introducing a citizen service to track the origin of food products and report unsafe food products,” Mucheru said when he received a report from the distributed ledgers technology and…
Read MoreAfrican education system not aligned to economic needs – Ramaphosa
JOHANNESBURG – African economies are unable to absorb a significant proportion of young people because the education system is not aligned to needs, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. In a speech prepared for delivery at the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) annual policy dialogue forum on secondary education, Ramaphosa said the continent’s demographic dividend would only be earned through investment in youth, its highest-yielding resource. Africa has a large proportion of young people who constitute about a fifth of all people under 25 years…
Read MoreCoal will be around for a long time yet
The idea that coal mining is a sunset industry was put to rest at the Coal Industry Day in Johannesburg this week. Coal’s outsized contribution to mining and the energy grid cannot be wished away, no matter how many wind turbines are erected in honour of environmental correctness. Xavier Prévost, senior coal analyst at XMP Consulting, ran through the numbers and it’s clear coal will be here for a long time yet. Coal is found in 70 countries and mined in 50 of them. At current rates of consumption,…
Read MoreKenya launches program to help improve nut crops
NAIROBI – Kenya’s researchers said Thursday they have launched a program aimed at improving the growing of nut crop, processing and marketing. Eliud Kireger, director general of Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), said the country’s nut industry is performing poorly because most of the nut crops that were introduced in the country have aged, and are now producing low quality nuts. “We have started research on macadamia, groundnuts, coconut and cashew nuts to improve their quality to boost trade locally and internationally,” Kireger told journalists in Nairobi. Kireger…
Read MoreThe Future of Zero Waste to Landfill and the New Carbon Tax
South Africa is fast approaching a situation of running out of landfill space; the inevitable “day full” is on our doorstep. The roll-out of the country’s carbon tax – which is geared towards reducing carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025 – will change the way that companies do business. This was the message from Wasteplan CEO Bertie Lourens in a presentation at the 2019 SAPICS Conference in Cape Town. Africa’s leading event for supply chain professionals is hosted annually by SAPICS, The Professional Body…
Read MoreGoing safely into the brave new world of 4IR
Put cybersecurity at the heart of industrial digitisation on the journey to 4IR, warns GECI The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is changing the world as we know it, and South Africa is pinning its growth ambitions on a 4IR-enabled economy. But 4IR adoption without putting cyber safety first could undermine growth efforts and expand the risks to manufacturing, heavy industry and key infrastructure, warns GECI. GECI, a specialist in industrial cyber security, says key infrastructure, manufacturing and heavy industry is potentially at greater cyber risk than knowledge-based enterprises. “Industries…
Read MoreRTS Africa Group gets a ‘Fair’ chance to highlight its many leading industrial automation solutions.
For the past three decades, the RTS Group has been introducing pioneering solutions to South Africa’s various industrial challenges. At the recent Africa Automation Fair held at the Ticketpro Dome in northern Johannesburg, the company joined the 124 other exhibitors in a quality exposition of control and automation. “South Africa needs to grasp the new wave of global automation more firmly,” says RTS Africa group MD Ian Fraser. The advantages of automation, he explains, are considerable and include higher production rates, better productivity, better use of materials improved product…
Read MoreSA meat importers say chicken imports tariffs catastrophic for economy
JOHANNESBURG – South African meat importers warned on Thursday a hasty decision to implement tariff increases on chicken imported from non-EU and SADC countries could see shortages of poultry in local markets which domestic producers may not be able to meet. An independent study commissioned by the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE) into the South African chicken industry found that despite already high levels of trade protection, domestic producers have not increased production to meet growing demand. AMIE said the research by global multi-disciplinary business advisory group, FTI…
Read MoreOPINION: Is SA really open for business?
SELLO MASHAO RASETHABA On Friday, the Competition Commission issued a statement that it had recommended to the Competition Tribunal that the proposed acquisition of Murray & Robert (M&R) by German firm Aton be prohibited.It is reported that there are more than 300 German companies operating in South Africa, which employ more than 60 000 people. In his budget vote speech, Minister of Trade and Industry and Economic Development Ebrahim Patel stated that one of the issues he was focusing on this year and beyond was to improve the levels of…
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