Then and Now: 120 Bioeconomy Pioneers look at yesterday, today, inspirations and challenges

Julian Mast-Ingle

Then: ”I was a Senior Engineering Manager on the the Chevron-Nigeria GTL project. The client team was stationed in the KBR offices in Houston. I was seconded to Chevron from the company, Sasol, I worked for in South Africa. We arrived in Houston at the beginning of May so I would have been working for 2 months. I really enjoyed the 9/80 work cycle where we worked our 80hrs in 9 days and then had alternate Fridays off.”

Now: ”I am currently self employed focussing on emerging and renewable technologies and providing project development services to technology start-ups. Part of this change was triggered by the energy technology company I was working for going into voluntary liquidation, primarily as a result of the low crude prices.

Inspirations:  I have seen the project management field develop into a more structured discipline where formal qualifications and memberships are almost a requirement for most PM positions. As such, I have recently started studying for PM certification. vI have now lived on three different continents (Africa, USA and Australia) and plan to settle in Australia where we currently reside.”

“I have a personal interest in the development and upliftment of rural communities in the developing economies such as Africa.vSo for me bioenergy/biofuel is a very important element in this upliftment. The production of power, as an example, creates an entire value chain – right from the farming/agriculture through to the sale of power to support either an off grid application where there are no transmission lines or connections to the local/national grids.vNot only can the WHO stats for measuring the improvement in quality of life of these communities be improved, but thriving economic hubs generating an income are created.

The biofuel economy is able to delivery profitable solutions at a small scale that cannot be match by the more tradition power generation technologies.”

Challenges:  For me it is getting sufficient investment in the areas I focus on. While there is an appetite for investment in energy solutions in Africa it is mostly for the more traditional (coal, gas, solar) industry with little focus on the bioeconomy.