Novozymes signed a development agreement with Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC) on the development of bioethanol from bagasse - a residual product of sugar production from sugar cane.
The development work will take place in a close collaboration between CTC and Novozymes in Brazil, aided by Novozymes' R&D centers in the US and Denmark. This future process will enable higher ethanol yield in the production process from sugar cane and will thereby optimize the process economy and energy balance and will also reduce the land use and emission of green house gases further.
"We are really looking forward to the co-operation with CTC, being an important player in the Brazilian biofuels sector," says Novozymes' CEO, Steen Riisgaard. "The research agreement is part of our efforts to identify economically profitable processes within the development of biofuels from plant waste and other biomass, and although it will be a few years before we know the extent to which the co-operation can be commercialized, we see considerable potential."
Contract signed in Copenhagen
The agreement was signed in Copenhagen Sept. 13 in the presence of Brazilian president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva and Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. President Lula is the first Brazilian president to make a state visit to Denmark.
As early as the 1970s, Brazil was the first country in the world to begin using bioethanol on a large scale, and today it is the world's largest producer of biofuel. In contrast to Europe, the US, and China, where bioethanol is predominantly produced from starch-containing crops such as corn and wheat, Brazil's production is mainly based on sugar cane. Almost 40 percent of Brazil's gasoline consumption is now covered by bioethanol, and the country also exports a large proportion of its production.