Fruits of J. curcas. Fruits are produced terminally in the branches, and each fruit contains three seeds. Image credit: Dr. Wagner A Vendrame, University of Florida at Homestead.

 What if space held the key to producing alternative energy crops on Earth? That’s what researchers are hoping to find in a new experiment on the International Space Station.

The experiment, National Lab Pathfinder-Cells 3, is aimed at learning whether microgravity can help jatropha curcas plant cells grow faster to produce biofuel, or renewable fuel derived from biological matter. Jatropha is known to produce high quality oil that can be converted into an alternative energy fuel, or biofuel(biodiesel).

By studying the effects of microgravity on jatropha cells, researchers hope to accelerate the cultivation of the plant for commercial use by improving characteristics such as cell structure, growth and development. This is the first study to assess the effects of microgravity on cells of a biofuel plant.

“As the search for alternate energy sources has become a top priority, the results from this study could add value for commercialization of a new product,” said Wagner Vendrame, principal investigator for the experiment at the University of Florida in Homestead. “Our goal is to verify if microgravity will induce any significant changes in the cells that could affect plant growth and development back on Earth.”

Launched on space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-130 mission in February, cell cultures of jatropha were sent to the space station in special flasks containing nutrients and vitamins. The cells will be exposed to microgravity until they return to Earth aboard space shuttle Discovery’s STS-131 mission targeted for April.

For comparison studies of how fast the cultures grow, a replicated set of samples are being maintained at the University of Florida’s Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead.

“Watching the space shuttle go up carrying a little piece of my work is an indescribable experience,” said Vendrame. “Knowing that my experiment could contribute to creating a sustainable means for biofuel production on Earth, and therefore making this a better world adds special value to the work.”   by Lori Meggs, AI Signal Research, Inc.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Source: Nasa

The global market is expected to record a CAGR of 7.8% from 2009 to 2014.

Increasing environmental concerns and the need for energy independence have led to the biodiesel market. Despite the economic recession, global biodiesel production totaled 5.1 billion gallons in 2009, representing a 17.9pc increase over 2008 levels.

The biodiesel market is expected to grow from $8.6 billion in 2009 to $12.6 billion in 2014. Market growth is primarily dependent on the availability, quality, and yield of feedstock, as it accounts for 65pc to 70pc of the cost of biodiesel production.

Biodiesel derived from rapeseed oil forms the largest segment of the overall market. Germany is the single largest producer of biodiesel with 2.8 million tonnes produced in 2008.

The biodiesel market also offers immense opportunities to countries such as the UK, India, and China, as these regions have high diesel fuel prices and a large number of diesel-fuelled vehicles.

While growth may be affected by feedstock availability issues and the food versus fuel debate, the market is expected to witness a paradigm shift with the increasing conversion efficiency of existing feedstock, and the development of newer feedstock sources such as algae, the report notes.

Transportation forms the main application market for biodiesel, with automotives accounting for 70% of the global biodiesel production.

As the use of conventional fuel for transport purposes is increasing greenhouse gas emissions at an alarming rate, governments across the globe have begun providing incentives for green energy.

Europe is currently the world’s largest biodiesel market; and is expected to be worth $7.0 billion by 2014 with a CAGR of 8.4% from 2009 to 2014. The growth of the European biodiesel market is driven mainly by governmental initiatives.

Source:  farmonline

BA says the plant will reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

British Airways has struck a deal to build the first plant in Europe to produce jet fuel from waste matter.

Some 500,000 tonnes of waste will be used by the UK facility each year to produce 16 million gallons of fuel.

Construction of the plant in east London will start within two years. It is set to produce fuel from 2014, creating up to 1,200 jobs.

BA said the plant would produce twice the amount of fuel needed to power all its flights from London City Airport.

It would only account for about 2% of flights from Heathrow, however.

Greenhouse gas

BA argues the plant will cut the amount of waste that is sent to landfill, reducing the amount of methane that is produced.

Methane is thought to be a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The plant will be built by a US company Solena Group, with BA committing to buy all of its output.

It will be another four years before it starts producing fuel, and it is unlikely to work at full capacity straight away.

The ideal source material for the plant is waste matter that has a high carbon content.

Biofuel creation

The waste is fed into a high temperature “gasifier” to produce BioSynGas.

A chemical process called Fischer Tropsch is then used to convert the gas into biofuel.

Waste products from the process can be used to power the plant as well as supply 20MW of electricity to the national grid.

A solid waste product can be used as an aggregate in construction.

The fuel produced by the plant is certified for use in other countries, but not currently in the UK.

BA says it is confident of getting the certification by the time the plant starts producing fuel, either for use in a blend with traditional kerosene or on its own.

By Richard Scott

Source: BBC

A research project will make jet fuel without wasting fresh water or farmland.

A project in the Middle East aims to make jet fuel from saltwater-tolerant crops grown in the desert. Researchers at the Masdar Institute in the United Arab Emirates are starting a two-square-kilometer demonstration farm that will combine fish and shrimp farming with the cultivation of mangrove trees and salicornia, a plant with oil-rich seeds that can be converted into fuel.

 The goal is to produce biofuels without taking away land from food crops or using large amounts of fresh water, which are two of the major shortcomings of conventional biofuels, says Scott Kennedy, an associate professor at the Masdar Institute who is leading the project. The project is supported by several major companies: Boeing, Etihad Airways (the national airline of the UAE), and UOP Honeywell, which will supply technology for converting the biomass to chemical precursors and fuels. The Masdar Institute is part of a zero-emissions city being built in Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate in the UAE.

Kennedy and his colleagues will refine a technique called integrated seawater agriculture. It begins with digging a canal from the sea. That canal delivers water to several stages in the system. First, the researchers pump saltwater into ponds or flow it past cages used for growing shrimp or fish. Ordinarily, such aquaculture is an “environmental disaster,” Kennedy says. The runoff contains large amounts of feces that can cause dangerous algae blooms, for example. But in the Masdar system, the researchers will use that effluent downstream to fertilize salicornia.

Story continues below 

The salicornia is grown in saltwater-irrigated fields, and can be harvested like other crops, such as wheat or rice. The runoff from that irrigation, now saltier and still containing some effluent from the fish and shrimp, together with more water from the canal, is next fed to a stretch of planted mangrove trees, which can grow in that saltier water. The mangrove forest provides a barrier, so that none of the polluted water from the fish farm returns to the ocean. The leaves can also be used as food for the fish.

The oil-rich seeds of the salicornia can be pressed using processing similar to that used for other oil seed crops, such as sunflowers. That oil can then be modified by a proprietary UOP Honeywell process that makes it suitable for blending in jet fuel. The rest of the plant can then be further used to produce liquid fuels, or burned to produce steam for electricity generation.

The fish farms provide both a source of income and a source of fertilizer, which reduces overall carbon emissions, since producing and using fertilizer is ordinarily a major source of carbon emissions in biofuels production. The mangrove forest also sequesters carbon dioxide in its root system. Most biofuels are at best carbon neutral, emitting as much carbon dioxide when they’re produced and burned as the biofuel crops take in as they grow. One of the key parts of the Masdar research project is determining just how much carbon can be economically sequestered.

A version of the system has already been demonstrated in the north African country of Eritrea by Carl Hodges, the founder and chairman of the Seawater Foundation. (He’s acting as a special advisor to the Masdar project.) In that project, the salicornia and leaves from the mangroves were used as animal feed, and some of the oil from the seeds was converted to biodiesel. That project ended as a result of political upheaval in that country, Hodges says, but it demonstrated that the integrated approach could work.

The effort to avoid using fresh water and land that’s used for food “should be applauded,” says Mark Schrock, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at Kansas State University. But he says it will be important to quickly develop a mechanized means of harvesting the salicornia. This could be a challenge because, although it can be harvested with existing equipment, the plant has high salt levels that could damage these machines, says Wayne Coates, a professor at the Office of Arid Land Studies at the University of Arizona.

It will also need to compete with other biofuels crops. Per acre yields of oil are on par with soybeans (which provide additional economic value from non-oil products), but are just one-eighth the yield of palm oil. The saltwater system, however, has the advantage of not requiring expensive land and water, and it produces its own fertilizer. Kennedy says that initial estimates suggest that fuel produced from salicornia could be competitive with petroleum-based fuels, but warns that detailed studies still need to be done.

Kevin Bullis

Source: Technoloy Review

www.salicornia.net coming soon

“Biodiesel will be incorporated into the energy matrix, initially accounting for 5 percent of domestic demand, that is 742 million liters (196 million gallons) per year, which is equivalent to the amount of conventional diesel fuel imported by Argentina in 2008,” Planning Minister Julio de Vido told a press conference.

The minister predicted that over the next four years biodiesel’s share of the conventional diesel-biofuel blend will rise to 20 percent.

The law mandating that diesel fuel contain a renewable component dates back to 2006 and stipulates that the measure must go into effect in 2010.

Separately, the minister said that in the face of “persistent record-high temperatures” in the current Southern Hemisphere summer, the electrical system has responded “perfectly within the normal parameters.”

He acknowledged that “there may have been some isolated” problems with the service, but nothing serious.

De Vido added that the government has already invested 18 billion pesos ($4.66 billion) to expand electricity generation and transport capacity in Argentina.

In that sense, he said investment projects totaling 29 billion pesos ($7.51 billion) are currently being carried out, in addition to planned future projects that will cost 31 billion pesos ($8.03 billion) EFE.

Source: Laht efe

As Indonesia is today the world’s largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) — a desirable feedstock for biodiesel production — it has the potential to grow into a world biodiesel leader and a model for plantation sustainability.

Biodiesel has the potential to become a significant industry sector in Indonesia, supported by two of its most valuable assets: its oil palm plantations, and more importantly, its people. Indonesia currently produces approximately 20 million tons of CPO per year from 7 million hectares of oil palm plantation, of which approximately 80 percent  is exported. 

In terms of revenue, CPO exports provide Indonesia with its biggest non-petroleum source of export income, and this is expected to grow in the future. 

Beyond revenue generation, oil palm plantations also currently provide a livelihood for more than three million Indonesian families.  This, too, is also expected to grow in the future.

By 2015, the area of Indonesian oil palm is expected to increase to 10 million hectares, of which three million hectares have already been approved. 

Studies have shown that the total amount of land that is suitable for growing oil palms, but which has not yet been approved, may be as high as 44 million hectares. 

Using conservative yield estimates, this area of oil palm plantation would produce 145 billion litres per year of biodiesel, or 10 percent  of current fossil diesel demand.  Beyond this significant biodiesel potential is the possibility of providing income to an additional 19 million Indonesian families. 

While these 44 million hectares are considered suitable for oil palm plantations, it is imperative to consider the long-term environmental consequences — including the overall, or life-cycle carbon dioxide emissions — before pursuing any development.

Conscious of the potential environmental impact of oil palm plantation development, new crops which grow on marginal land are being investigated. This greatly reduces the required land-clearing and concomitant “carbon dioxide debt” from the forest destruction. 

One example of such a crop is Jatropha, which has been studied extensively by the Indonesian Center for Estate Crops Research and Development.  Recent estimates from the Indonesian National Team for Biofuel Development suggest that as much as 15 million hectares of land in Indonesia are suitable for Jatropha plantations. 

With conservative yield estimates, this land would produce 40 billion litres per year of biodiesel.

From a feedstock perspective, Indonesia certainly has the potential to become a world biodiesel hub, but there are two additional elements that need to be in place — sufficient biodiesel processing capacity and adequate demand, either domestically or internationally.

As with any other investment, biodiesel processing capacity will only develop if it results in a profitable business.  With the spot price of CPO close to US$700 /t, it is not currently economical to produce biodiesel, explaining the large proportion of idle capacity in Indonesia’s current biodiesel production capacity of nearly 3 billion litres per year.

Feedstock cost represents the majority of biodiesel production costs and is the only lever for affecting significantly the profitability of biodiesel production. Securing feedstock supply contracts is an option to lower feedstock cost but prices will still be subject to market volatility, and will also include some margin for the plantation.

Even with a profitable biodiesel business in place, sufficient demand must exist for any biodiesel that is produced. Current demand is driven largely by government biofuel blending mandates, which are currently set at 2.5 percent.  This demand will increase only if the government accelerates the biodiesel blending mandate, or if crude oil prices increase relative to CPO prices, which is unlikely given the recent high correlation between the two.

A third way to accelerate domestic short- to mid-term biodiesel demand while also increasing biodiesel export demand, however, does exist.  Recent advances in biodiesel processing technology have made it possible to use CPO to produce so-called “green diesel” which has superior fuel properties compared to both biodiesel and fossil diesel.  This technology uses a hydrogenation process, similar to that found in modern oil refineries, to upgrade vegetable oil to green diesel.

The superior fuel properties of green diesel means that it can be used as a blending agent to upgrade the quality of the fossil diesel pool at a traditional refinery, and this allows for the possibility of increasing the overall refinery margins in some cases.  Domestically, this means that green diesel can be used in large quantities in place of fossil diesel, thus reducing Indonesia’s dependence on fossil diesel imports.  The implementation of increasingly stringent Euro IV and Euro V fuel specifications in Europe also increases the possibility for the export of green diesel as a blending agent.

While Indonesia has great potential to become a major world player in biodiesel, it is unlikely to be fulfilled unless sustainable plantation practices are followed.  The location where palm plantations are established and the manner in which new palm plantation land is cleared, have a large effect on life-cycle carbon dioxide emissions.

Indonesia is in a strong position to further develop its already significant CPO production into a much larger and more profitable biodiesel industry.

The combination of a rich natural resource base, a dedicated and knowledgeable people and recent advances in biodiesel technology, combine to form a strong base on which to develop Indonesia as a major world player in biodiesel. 

Dr. Bernd Waltermann is a BCG senior partner and managing director and Dr. Henning Streubel is a BCG partner and managing director. Both are based in Southeast Asia.

Source: The Jakarta Post

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell plans to form an ethanol and fuel distribution joint venture worth up to $12 billion with Brazilian sugar and biofuel giant Cosan, becoming the latest global energy company to buy into one of Brazil’s fastest-growing industries.

The deal, announced on Monday, marks Shell’s first foray into ethanol production and follows moves by British oil company BP, which in 2008 took a stake in a big Brazilian biofuel project and unveiled $1 billion in investments.

Cosan shares jumped 12 percent in Sao Paulo, compared with a 1.1 percent gain by the benchmark Bovespa index. Shell shares rose 1.1 percent in London, outperforming a 0.3 percent rise in the Dow Jones European oil and gas index.

“It’s a vote of confidence from an oil major for the Brazilian ethanol industry,” said Jonathan Kingsman, managing director of the Lausanne-based Kingsman SA ethanol and sugar consultancy. “I expect more interest from the oil companies in Brazilian ethanol, both in production and distribution.”

The 50-50 joint venture will be the third-largest fuel distributor in Latin America’s largest country, with almost 4,500 filling stations nationwide. By joining forces, Cosan and Shell will be better positioned to compete with the two top players in the market, state oil giant Petrobras and Ipiranga, a unit of Brazil’s Grupo Ultra.

Cosan first branched out into the fuel distribution business in 2008 when it acquired U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp’s Esso chain of service stations for nearly $1 billion. Cosan also agreed in December to buy a local chain of filling stations called Petrosul for an undisclosed sum.

While the deal will not immediately add to Cosan’s existing cane crushing capacity of about 60 million tonnes a year, it will give it a deep-pocketed partner at a time when some of its smaller rivals are vulnerable to takeovers.

The companies hope to more than double ethanol output to up to 5 billion liters a year from about 2 billion now, Shell’s downstream director, Mark Williams, said in London, without giving a time frame. The increase would come from takeovers and organic growth, he added.

The deal is another feather in the cap of Cosan Chairman Rubens Ometto, whose family has been in the sugar business since 1936. On Ometto’s watch, Cosan went on an acquisition spree and expanded into fuel distribution and port terminals.

Ometto hopes to capitalize on Shell’s global clout to make ethanol a widely traded commodity.

“Brazil’s aim is to become an ethanol exporter. Shell has distribution facilities throughout the world that we could use in a much more integrated way,” Ometto said in Sao Paulo.

“This step will be very important to consolidate ethanol as a clean and renewable fuel … and help it become a global commodity.”

Oil companies and major global investors have been searching for partnerships in Brazil’s promising ethanol sector, which is still largely dominated by family companies with complex ownership structures.

Shell has been looking for opportunities in Brazil’s ethanol industry for years. About 90 percent of all new cars in Brazil are flex-fuel, running on any mix of ethanol and gasoline, making the country a huge market for biofuels.

Other foreign companies have also been delving into Brazil. U.S. agribusiness giant Bunge Ltd struck a deal in December to buy sugar and ethanol producer Moema for $452 million, while French commodities company Louis Dreyfus said in October it would take over the Santelisa Vale mill for an undisclosed sum.

COSAN EYES OVERSEAS MARKETS, TECHNOLOGY

The combined entity will have about 40 billion reais ($21.4 billion) in annual sales, Cosan Chief Financial Officer Marcelo Martins said on a conference call with analysts and investors.

For Cosan, the world’s largest sugar and ethanol producer, teaming up with Shell could give it access to a vast overseas distribution network and new technologies in ethanol production, an area where Shell has been investing. Shell’s network may help Cosan export more ethanol as output grows.

“We’ll have a partner with an absolutely huge international presence in fuels sales,” Martins said.

The so-called second-generation in ethanol production has yet to reach commercial scale, but some companies are betting on the use of cellulosic material such as bagasse or cane stalks and grasses to make biofuels, in part to move away from making fuel from foodstuffs.

Cosan, which recently obtained a court injunction to remove its name from a government black list of companies with workers in slave-like conditions, said it had 180 days to discuss the nonbinding memorandum of understanding exclusively with Shell International Petroleum Co Ltd.

As part of the transaction, Cosan will transfer its sugar, ethanol, fuel distribution and energy generation business to the merged entity, with assets valued at $4.93 billion and debt of $2.52 billion.

Shell will contribute its retail fuel and aviation distribution business, valued at up to $3 billion, and inject $1.63 billion into the merged company in up to two years.

Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual advised Cosan on the transaction, while JPMorgan Chase advised Shell.

Cosan and Shell will have the option of buying each other’s stake in the venture after 10 years, with the price to be determined at the time of purchase.

Earlier on Monday, Cosan released its quarterly earnings for the three months ended December 31. It posted net income of 167.1 million reais, up sharply from 5.2 million reais a year earlier. ($1=1.87 reais)

Reporting by Elzio Barreto and Inae Riveras; additional reporting by Reese Ewing in Sao Paulo and David Brough, Nigel Hunt and Tom Bergin in London; editing by Todd Benson, Dave Zimmerman and John Wallace.

Source:  Reuters

State-run oil giant Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) and General Electric Co (GE.N), which helped design the plant, are betting that increased use of ethanol generation by green-conscious countries will boost demand for the product.

Brazil, the top global ethanol exporter, is already in talks with Japan to develop biofuels power generation there.

“We have great expectations to show the viability and economy of generating electricity from … an alternative feedstock to fossil fuels,” Maria das Gracas Foster, head of Petrobras’ natural gas division, said.

Petrobras with the help of GE upgraded the 87-megawatt power plant to switch between running on natural gas or ethanol instantaneously. Brazil primarily relies on hydroelectric power but needs backup thermoelectric generation during the dry season.

John Ingham, Latin America Products Director for GE, said tests showed switching the plant to ethanol reduced carbon dioxide emissions without lowering energy output.

GE has around 770 turbines like those used in the Juiz de Fora plant, including many in Japan, that could be converted to run on ethanol, he said.

“A plant like that consumes a lot of ethanol, so it has to be in a place that makes sense (such as) places that have no access to gas, like Japan, some islands, or places that depend heavily on diesel like the Amazon region,” he said.

Brazil is expected to produce a record 27.8 billion liters of ethanol in the 2009/2010 season. It began its biofuels program 30 years ago and now mandates a minimum 20 percent of ethanol in gasoline.

Petrobras itself is only starting to enter the ethanol market. Brazil’s ethanol production comes from sugar cane milled by companies such as Cosan (CZZ.N) or commodities giants including Cargill Inc [CARG.UL], Bunge (BG.N) and ADM Co (ADM.N).

Domestic demand for ethanol is being driven by the popularity of the flex-fuel car technology that was launched in 2003 and now makes up around 90 percent of new vehicle sales. (Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Marguerita Choy).

By Denise Luna

Source: Reuters

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence. The sequence and its analysis appear in the January 14 edition of the journal Nature.

The research team comprised 18 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The DOE, National Science Foundation, USDA and United Soybean Board supported the research.

“The soybean genome’s billion-plus nucleotides afford us a better understanding of the plant’s capacity to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water, into concentrated energy, protein, and nutrients for human and animal use,” said Anna Palmisano, DOE Associate Director of Science for Biological and Environmental Research. “This opens the door to crop improvements that are sorely needed for energy production, sustainable human and animal food production, and a healthy environmental balance in agriculture worldwide.”

With the soybean genetic code now determined, the research community has access to a key reference for more than 20,000 legume species and can explore the extraordinary evolutionary innovation of nitrogen-fixing symbiosis that is so critically important to successful agricultural crop rotation strategies.

Jeremy Schmutz, the study’s first author and a DOE JGI scientist at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama, said that the soybean sequencing was the largest plant project done to date at the DOE Joint Genome Institute. “It also happens to be the largest plant that’s ever been sequenced by the whole genome shotgun strategy—where we break it apart and reassemble it like a huge puzzle,” he said. Of the more than 20 other plant genomes taken on by the DOE JGI, those already sequenced include the black cottonwood (poplar) tree and the grain sorghum, both targeted because of their promise as biomass feedstocks for biofuels production.

“This is a milestone for soybean research and promises to usher in a new era in soybean agronomic improvement,” said co-author Gary Stacey, Director, Center for Sustainable Energy and Associate Director and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri. “The genome provides a parts list of what it takes to make a soybean plant and, more importantly, helps to identify those genes that are essential for such important agronomic traits as protein and oil content.”

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence.

From the sequence analysis, Stacey said that he and his colleagues have identified more than 46,000 genes of which 1,110 are involved in lipid metabolism. “These genes and their associated pathways are the building blocks for soybean oil content and represent targets that can be modified to bolster output and lead to the increase of the use of soybean oil for biodiesel production.”

While biodiesel from soybean oil represents a cleaner, renewable alternative to fossil fuels with desirable properties as a liquid transportation fuel, there simply is not enough oil produced by the plant to be a competitive gasoline on a gallons-of-fuel yield per acre. The availability of the soybean genome may provide some key solutions. “We can now zero in on the control points governing carbon flow towards protein and oil,” said Tom Clemente, Professor, Center for Biotechnology, Center for Plant Science Innovation at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. “With the combination of informatics, biochemistry and genetics we can target the development of a soybean with greater than 40 percent oil content.”

The availability of the soybean genome sequence has accelerated other soybean trait discovery efforts as well. For example, researchers have used the sequence to zero in on a mutation that can be used to select for a line that has lower levels of the sugar stachyose, which will improve the ability of animals and humans to digest soybeans.

In another effort, by comparing the genomes of soybean and corn, a single-base pair mutation was found that causes a reduction in phytate production in soybean. Phytate is the form in which phosphorous is stored in plant tissue. Because phytate is not absorbed by the animals that eat the feed, the unabsorbed phytate passes through the gastrointestinal tract, elevating the amount of phosphorus in the manure. Limiting phytate production in the soybean could reduce a major environmental runoff contaminant from swine and poultry waste.

Of additional importance for soybean farmers is that the genome sequence has provided access to the first resistance gene for the devastating disease Asian Soybean Rust (ASR). In countries where ASR is well established, soybean yield losses due to the disease can be as high as 80 percent.

Provided by DOE/Joint Genome Institute

Source: Physorg

Moema Par is a holding company that owns one sugarcane mill and has ownership in five others. Together the six mills, known as the Moema Group, have the capacity to crush 15.4 metric tons. This agreement, which is structured as a share exchange worth approximately $896 million, gives Bunge 60 percent effective share of the total capacity.

“This transaction fulfills Bunge’s strategic goal of building a large-scale, fully integrated business in sugar and bioenergy,” stated Alberto Weisser, Chairman and CEO of Bunge Limited. “It adds significant scale to our current milling operations and enables us to vary production among multiple sugar and ethanol products, according to market conditions. The Moema Group cluster is also strategically located near large domestic markets in Brazil and has excellent access to export logistics systems. All of these strengths make it a perfect fit with our global trading and marketing operations.”

The Moema Group cluster is located on the border of São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, the two largest domestic ethanol markets in Brazil. According to Bunge, the mills benefit from cost savings due to their cluster configuration, and have favorable road and rail access to three of Brazil’s largest export ports (Santos, Paranagua and Vitoria). The mills can produce both raw and crystal sugar, as well as hydrous and anhydrous ethanol. In addition, the mills have co-generation facilities, are self-sustaining in terms of energy requirements and sell excess power to the grid. The majority of the cluster’s sugarcane is harvested mechanically, which is now law in São Paulo.

According to Bunge, they may enter into agreements to secure some of all of the remaining interests in the mills that comprise the Moema Group in the next few weeks.

Source: Domestic Fuel