Dr JACOBUS (KOKKIE) SWANEPOEL

Project Sponsor

Jacobus Swanepoel has been working for the last 34 years in different fields of energy, including renewables such as wind, solar and biomass, gas and coal gasification, landfill site gas, digestion of waste, off gasses to liquid fuels, nuclear energy, as well as high temperature processes and minerals beneficiation. He specializes in the development and implementation of technologies from laboratory work to full scale plants as well as the strategic development of new businesses.

Key areas of expertise include energy, plasma technology, gasification of biomass and coal, technologies to upgrade coal, coke and hydrocarbons, landfill site gas, nuclear technologies, high temperature design, fluorine and chlorine chemicals, handling of hazardous materials, surface science and chemical vapor deposition at high temperatures.

Jacobus developed various technologies up to feasibility by utilizing eleven grants from the South African government as well as 1 grant from the United States of America (USTDA).

Jacobus has been the project sponsor and project manager for more than 260 projects including due diligences, reviews, concepts, prefeasibility and feasibilities as well as turnkey design and construction of plants. He is also an entrepreneur and established the Thermtron group of companies in 1999 in the high technology and engineering fields and acted as the managing director for 13 years. He is currently a sponsor for Thermtron Scientific and assists with strategic direction. Jacobus is involved in the development of various other businesses, of which the first one, Swayana (Pty) Ltd is a level 2 BBBEE company focusing on the production of green fuels and chemicals from waste (www.swayana.co.za).

Jacobus won several awards, including the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers Innovation Award for 2010 for titanium dioxide production using plasma technology and the Atomic Energy Corporation of SA gold medal in 1995 for PTFE production using plasma technology.   He has been involved as inventor in patents since 1994.