Mitsui invests in Brazil bioethanol project

03 July 2008 12:53 [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co will invest reais (R) 450m ($281m) in a Brazilian bioethanol project with the local Petrobras and Itaruma, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The companies would build a bioethanol plant in the southern city of Itaruma, Goias state, with a capacity of 200,000 kilolitres/year, which was scheduled to start commercial production in the latter half of 2009, they said.

The firms aim to export bioethanol to Japan, as well as to North America and Europe, for use in power generation and transportation, they added.

The three parties also planned to grow sugarcane feedstock in the central region of Cerrado, a wild island grassland area, to be exclusively used for bioethanol production, the companies said.

The projects would not affect the sugar market or contribute to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the firms added.

Furthermore, the project would make use of bagasse - the biomass of sugarcane or sorghum stalks - by combusting it and collecting the resulting heat for ethanol production and generating electricity by a steam boiler, the companies said.

The bagasse power generation woudl also help reduce consumption of fossil fuels, according to the companies.

A joint venture set up by Mitsui & Co and Petrobras will invest 40% - 20% each - in the project, while Itaruma, a consortium of bioethanol investors established for the project, will have a 60% stake.

($1 = R1.60)

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By: Tomomi Yokomura
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