Amyris launches first green oil plant
Valor Econômico
Amyris, a biotechnology company headquartered in California, began the works of its first plant in Brazil, a sugarcane processing plant in Pradópolis (SP). Result of a joint venture with the national group São Martinho, the plant will have capacity to process 2 million tons of sugarcane to produce farnesene, a raw material that can be turned into plastics, rubber, detergent, aviation kerosene or be used as diesel - among other applications. The plans of the American company to get to 2014 producing 600 million liters of sugarcane byproducts have also been defined - most in license agreements with the groups Cosan, Bunge, Açúcar Guarani.
The São Martinho-Amyris joint venture was announced at the end of last year, involving an investment of nearly US$ 50 million in new plant - whose share will be split fifty-fifty by the two groups. The unit should start producing in the second quarter of 2012, with capacity for 20 million liters, which will increase until it gets to 100 million liters in 2014 - when it will then process 2 million tons of sugarcane. The CEO of Amyris, John Melo, says that according to the sales agreements that have already been signed, the production started now has guaranteed demand for the next four years. Proctor & Gamble should buy farnesene to produce soap and detergents, and M&G, owner of a plant of PET bottles in Suape (PE), will use the green raw-material in part of the production. Shell is interested in the diesel, and the French oil company Total, owner of 22% of Amyris, will develop a line of car lubricants - besides having interest in the diesel itself.
According to John Melo, the demand grows more than the production, and the challenge is to make the supply meet demand. They are currently working with the airline Azul and General Electric to produce Aviation kerosene in the country. Its long-term forecast is that the world can get to 2020 with a production of chemical from sugarcane that will consume the equivalent to 100 million tons of sugarcane - which will then be responsible for 10% of the production of the crop. According to Fábio Venturelli, CEO of São Martinho, his company will provide Amyres the sugarcane juice, the raw material for farnesene, and it will help allow the industrial scale of production - the management of the plant will be shared. The American will provide the fermentation technology and will be responsible for the sale.
According to the CEO of Amyris, the initial focus will be on the production of farnesene for use in the chemical industry, leaving the production of fuel for a second phase. Today, the market price of farnesene is US$ 20 to US$ 25 per liter, but the production is very small. One of the few plants that do so in the USA sells it for US$ 50 per liter, says the Executive. The idea, however, it not to sell it at such a price. Once we achieve scale, the value tends to fall, making room for other uses in the production - such as fuel. License agreements signed this year should take two plants of the same type of São Martinho to Cosan, two to Bunge and one to Guarani. The expectation is to inaugurate two units a year until 2014.