South Africa Conference & Workshop
Protea Hotel, Wonderes, Illovo, Johannesburg 28 - 30 Janurary 2010

 

Presenter Biographies

 

 

ANTONIO LLOBELL

CURRICULUM VITAE

 

Antonio Llobell 2009Prof. Antonio Llobell
B.A. and M.S. (Biology) (University of Seville, Spain)
PhD (Biological Sciences) (University of Seville, Spain)
CEO, PlantBio Trust, The National Innovation Centre for Plant Biotechnology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antonio Llobell is the Chief Executive Officer of PlantBio Trust, having joined in April 2004 as the Chief Operations Officer and moving to his current position in February 2007. During his six years with PlantBio, Prof Llobell has played an integral role in building the PlantBio team, developing and implementing the organization strategy and growing the Trust investment portfolio.  His participation has been instrumental in establishing national strategic initiatives for innovation in the Biotech sector and collaborations both locally and internationally.

 

The coordination of PlantBio’s investment portfolio activities have included project scouting and selection with more than one hundred proposals evaluated. Thirty proposals have been funded and are being supported, managed and monitored in different regions of South Africa. Seven deals involving the establishment of start up companies have been concluded with one of the companies having reached profit breakeven and two expected to do so in the 2009/10 financial year. Prof Llobell seats in the board of directors of six of these companies as a non-executive director. In addition, nineteen R&D projects in prioritized technology and thematic areas and several national technology platforms have been funded.

 

With more than 12 years of senior research management experience in the plant and microbial biotechnology field, Dr Llobell was Professor of Plant Biotechnology at the African Centre for Crop Improvement, University of KwaZulu Natal, before joining PlantBio.  He has also been a Professor Titular at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, University of Seville and CSIC (Spain).  Dr Llobell has a strong entrepreneur background and was co-founder and scientific consultant in Newbiotechnic, S.A. (NBT), a biotech company specialising in the development of applications for the agri-food and industrial sectors, and in NBT Diagen, S.A., a biotech company commercialising molecular diagnosis services for the medical sector.  He has published more than sixty scientific articles in books and first rated peer-reviewed international journals and more than one hundred communications to national and international congresses. He has also been referee for a number of international journals and is the inventor of six Spanish and four international patent applications on antifungal genes and proteins, gene expression systems and biocontrol formulations.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PRESENTATION
Topic
PlantBio’s initiatives in bio-fuels: exploring energy crops in South Africa

 

Brief Description
PlantBio trust, the South African national innovation center for plant biotechnology, has bio-fuels as one of its priority areas for investment. PlantBio’s strategy in this area is based on the integration of both upstream (production of feedstock) and downstream (processing of feedstock to generate fuel) processes, being sustainability one of the key drivers for investment. Energy balance, economic viability, environmental impact and social value are the main aspects considered in the evaluation of projects. Non competition with food crops and the potential to accelerate rural economic development in South Africa, are also essential considerations.
Up to date, the main area of investment is the production of bioethanol using different types of feedstock. Biodiesel, biogas and products derived from chemical treatment of biomass are also aspects included in our bio-fuels portfolio.

 

First and second generation feedstock are being explored for ethanol production in different regions of South Africa. In parallel, we have also funded crop improvement initiatives.  The main crops considered are sugar/energy cane, sugar beet, sorghum, millet and triticale. The project portfolio covers a set of integrated approaches from agronomic trials and breeding programs to the improvement of feed stock processing, and from funding bio-prospecting efforts aiming at identifying novel enzymes for lignocelluloses degradation to investment in industrial ethanol producing facilities using first generation feedstock.