French Total bets on biofuel
Folha de S. Paulo
French oil company Total has acquired 17% of the North-American Amyris, of biotechnology and development of renewable fuels and chemicals, becoming another of the giants of the sector to invest in the segment. Amyris has pilot plant in Campinas (SP) for the production of fuels and chemicals using sugar cane as raw material based on the synthetic biology technology. It has developed a technology that turns the broth of the sugar cane into an intermediate product for the production of chemical fuels.
In an announcement, the companies said the partnership "combines the platform of industrial synthetic biology and the emerging productive capacity in Brazil of Amyris with the technological know-how, the industrial-scale capacity and the access to the markets of Total". "It is a strategic partnership. We will use the knowledge Total has in the petrochemical chain for the manufacture of products with renewable source", said Roel Collier, CEO of Amyris in Brazil.
Now, with the experience of Total in the segment, Collier says he believes it will be more feasible to get to chemical materials for industrial application and renewable fuels.
Collier stated the interest of the oil companies in the segment has increased a lot and that Amyris has been sought by other companies, without revealing their names. "All the companies are looking at it with great fascination". In the past years, the oil companies have turned their attention towards the biofuel sector, since the costs of exploration of oil are increasingly higher and, many times, the fields discovered are in countries where the sector is dominated by State-owned companies, like in Brazil.
At the end of April, Petrobras invested R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 888.9 million) to acquire the control of 45.7% in capital of Açúcar Guarani, the fourth largest sugar cane processor of the country that is controlled by the International French Tereos. Earlier this year, British-Dutch Shell signed an agreement with Cosan - estimated at US$ 12 billion -for the creation of two subsidiaries. In 2008, British BP acquired 50% of the Tropical BioEnergia plant.