Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Plants in Brazil

Granbio Cellulosic Ethanol plant, Alagoas

Following a 20-month construction, Brazil's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant at São Miguel dos Campos, Alagoas, began production in September 2014, with current production capacity of ~22m gallons per annum. The cost of the plant was $190m with a further $75m spent on the co-generation system. The plant uses Beta Renewables / Biochemtex PROESA technoloy. Novozymes supplies the hydrolytic enzymes, and DSM yeasts are used for the fermentation.

In May 2013, BNDES provided a $149m loan to Bioflex Agroindustrial, a subsidiary of GranBio, for construction of the plant, which will convert bagasse and residual sugar cane straw into 2G ethanol. BNDES said "The use of straw and bagasse will allow industrial productivity of ethanol to reach around 10,000 liters per hectare, corresponding to an increase of up to 45 percent compared to current levels."

GranBio intends to build a new ethanol plant each year up to 2020 with a planned investment of US$1.7 billion.

Raizen / Iogen Cellulsoic Ethanol Plant

In December 2014, production commenced at the $100 million, 40 MMly Raízen Energia S/A commercial Cellulosic Ethanol plant at the Costa Pinto sugarcane mill. The 10MMgy plant, uses technology developed by Iogen Energy, a joint venture of Raízen and Iogen Corp, to convert bagasse into ethanol. Enzymes are supplied by Novozymes. Raizen plans to producing up to 1 billion liters of cellulosic biofuel from bagasse and cane straw by 2024.