26 August saw the first meeting of the Imtech team that will be travelling to South Africa for the pilot project of Shared Success in Developing Countries. The eight selected candidates met up in Imtech’s office in The Hague, where they got to know each other during an intensive afternoon and evening programme. Carlo Bakker, director of World Mobile Plants, also stopped by to give an extensive explanation of his project.

                              
World Mobile Plants is the project that was chosen. Briefly summarised: Bakker will be producing biodiesel in Soweto, using used cooking oil that will be collected by poor, disadvantaged women, so providing them with a source of income. The biodiesel will be
produced in a mobile, German-made plant and conforms to European norms, with safe production and few emissions. The raw material – used cooking oil – has in many cases been used so often that it contains carcinogens. Bakker hopes to eventually put a whole series of these mobile plants to work, thereby providing many employment and education opportunities.

An important part of the kick-off meeting was getting to know each other, followed by dividing the members of the boost team into two sub-groups: Technology and Logistics according to the most important tasks to be fulfilled in South Africa:Drawing up a logistical plan for collecting the used cooking oil. Making a model for optimising the production process. Drawing up a maintenance plan for the current plant. Drawing up a feasibility study examining whether the market offers sufficient opportunities for these small-scale biodiesel plants to be manufactured in South Africa instead of importing them from Germany. Should this be possible it could give the project even more depth, to say nothing of instilling a sense of ‘national pride’ as this would make the biodiesel plant a South-African project from A to Z.