November 17, 2016 (Sugaronline) | https://goo.gl/H0JthL
Large sugar and ethanol groups in Brazil intend to start using "energy cane" on an industrial scale in some of their mills in 2017, according to Brazil's Valor Econômico newspaper.
Energy cane is a variety of sugarcane initially developed to be the raw material for production of cellulosic ethanol and electricity from biomass. Although the species has a lower productivity than conventional sugarcane in the ethanol and sugar production process, it has a much higher agricultural productivity, doubling the concentration of biomass per hectare.
Granbio has already tested the energy cane on a industrial scale, but production will increase in the next season. "The goal is to show that you can use energy cane to have biomass and also to produce first-generation ethanol," said Bernardo Gradin, president at GranBio.
Granbio will use energy cane in Guaxuma mill, a plant located in Alagoas state which was leased from bankrupt Grupo João Lyra in September. Granbio expects to produce 140,000 tonnes of energy cane in its fields in Alagoas, which is going to supply Guaxuma mill. The unit will also process conventional cane until Granbio has enough energy cane available to supply Guaxuma's total demand of 1.8 million tonnes per season.
Odebrecht Agroindustrial will also process 250,000 tonnes of energy cane in its Rio Claro mill in 2017/18, using raw material planted by Vignis, a Brazilian company focused on genetic enhancement of sugarcane, according to Celso Ferreira, vice president of operations and engineering at Odebrecht Agroindustrial.
Raízen Energia will be supplied with 400,000 tonnes of energy cane by Vignis to be processed next season.
Vignis is currently negotiating contracts with other companies to plant energy cane in the future, according to president Luiz Rubio. "This year we harvested 200,000 tonnes, in the next [year] volume is expected to reach 1.5 million tonnes. We are on a very aggressive growth trajectory," he said.