Bio Clean invests US$ 45.7 MM to expand in biodiesel
DCI
The biodiesel industry Bio Clean Energy should invest nearly R$ 80 million (US$ 45.7 million) in new plants, research and technology, this year, in Brazil. After having recently invested R$ 10 million (US$ 5.7 million) in the first industrial unit in Araraquara, interior of São Paulo, the company now injects R$ 60 million (US$ 34.3 million) in the second plant located in the industrial district of Luís Eduardo Magalhães, in the State of Bahia.
According to Sérgio Gonçalves Dutra, agronomist and consultant of Bio Clean and of the Forest and Agricultural Studies and Researches Foundation (Fepaf), R$ 2 million (US$ 1.1 million) will be intended for the building of a pilot plant in Motuca, also in the interior of São Paulo. "The overall value of the project in Motuca including researching, funding, services and capital goods amounts to R$ 7 million (US$ 4 million)". From such total, according to Dutra, more than R$ 1 million (US$ 571.4 thousand) has already been spent by the Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Company), the Municipal Government of Motuca, the Fepaf, and by Bio Clean. The company has already exceeded R$ 1 million (US$ 571.4 billion) in resources intended for the research of new raw materials for extracting biodiesel. In technical assistance and rural extension, Bio Clean should invest R$ 325 thousand (US$ 185.7 thousand), and R$ 455 billion ($ 260 billion) shall be intended for the production of oilseeds.
Bio Clean, which is an arm of Endurance Capital Partners (ECP), a Fund connected to the fund manager Capitânia, expects to earn R$ 140 million (US$ 80 million) this year. For the 2010/2012 harvest, Bio Clean has already defined a 40% increase in the investments in rural extension and technical assistance, in addition to increasing by 55% the investments in the production of oilseeds. Dutra has said a second production line will be added in Araraquara in 2010. "That will allow doubling the production, from 70 million to 140 million liters of biodiesel annually." According to Dutra, for this harvest a total area of 7 thousand hectares formed by farming families of the municipalities of Araraquara, Guatapará, Jaboticabal, Matão, Motuca and Pradópolis is foreseen. "There is the expectation of an increase of 30% of the planted area and a 12% increase in the productivity of the oilseeds." With the planting of canola, peanut, safflower, crambe, sunflower, and soy, Bio Clean estimates a production of 2.7 million liters of biodiesel. An income of nearly R$ 6.5 million (US$ 3.7 million) for the farming families.
Bio Clean Energy intends to spread mini plants, called Skids, which integrate the National Biodiesel Production and Use Program, throughout the entire national territory. According to the consultant, the cost of setting them up is much smaller than that of the current plants that use conventional technology. "We believe the beginning of the operation of the unit of Motuca will validate the methodology and initiate a specific planning on the part of the federal government intended for the implementation of Skids". The first module of the project for the obtaining of the Social Fuel Stamp, which includes the two thousand farmers, should be expanded to other municipalities of São Paulo, according to Dutra, in the region of Andradina, Bauru and Itupeva.