Sugar Cane Diesel 'To Go On Sale Next Year'

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Sugar Cane Diesel 'To Go On Sale Next Year'

22 July 2010

BRAZIL – Sugar cane-based diesel fuel is to be sold across Brazil from 2011, a US biotechnology firm has said after launching an on-road trial in partnership with Sao Paulo authorities.

According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, the Brazilian division of California-based Amyris Biotechnologies will begin large-scale commercial production of the fuel next year at a plant to be built in Sao Paulo.

This week, Amyris and the government of Brazil's largest city inaugurated a pilot project in which three buses will run for six months on a mixture of sugar-based diesel and conventional fuel, while other vehicles will use ordinary diesel for the purpose of comparison.

The newspaper reported: "All diesel fuel in Brazil must be blended with 5 percent biodiesel derived from oil plants such as soy and African palm, but this is the first time that sugarcane-based biodiesel will be used."

Earlier this year, Agrimoney.com reported that foreign investment in Brazil's sugar cane ethanol mills had surged by 22 per cent since the 2007/08 season.

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