The first ethanol plant in Brazil to use corn in 100% of its pioneering production, FS Bioenergia announced the implementation of three new units in the country.
Construction work on the first, in Nova Mutum (MT), is expected to begin in May this year and will receive around R$1 billion in investments.
The facility will have an annual production capacity of 530 million liters of ethanol, 340 thousand tons of corn bran, 17 thousand tons of corn oil.
Although it cogenerates 130,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply a city of up to 55,000 inhabitants.
Demand for ethanol in Brazil is expected to remain high, also boosting expectations for the pioneering production of corn ethanol.
Therefore, according to estimates from the National Union of Corn Ethanol (Unem), it will show an increase of 64% compared to last year.
“We are confident in the evolution of the national market, particularly since the approval of the RenovaBio program, which represents an important structural movement in favor of biofuel.
We use the most efficient technology on the market and today we produce the biofuel with the smallest carbon footprint in the world,” says the company’s CEO, Rafael Abud.
What about the other projects?
The other two plants will be built in the Mato Grosso municipality of Campo Novo do Parecis and Primavera do Leste, and are expected to replicate the construction models established throughout the country.
Construction work is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2020, after operations at the Sorriso unit are consolidated.
The company states that the decision to centralize its operations in Mato Grosso is linked to its strategic location in the country's main corn-producing region.
However, this guarantees easy access to raw materials, which are fully utilized in all production processes, such as for the manufacture of DDGs.
With the potential to generate 1,500 direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase, FS Bioenergia's third plant will have the capacity to store 400,000 tons of corn and mill 1.3 million tons of grain.
Combined with the plants in Lucas do Rio Verde and Sorriso, the company's annual production capacity will exceed 1.6 billion liters of ethanol, 1 million tons of corn bran and 51 thousand tons of corn oil.
"When completed, the five plants will have a combined production capacity of a pioneering 2.6 billion liters of ethanol per year. This will elevate FS Bioenergia to one of the three largest ethanol companies in the country," it said in a statement.