As a market, Brazil may bring other advantages, too. The country's demand for diesel is high, so Amyris could build a respectable business without ever exporting a drop. Brazil also has space to increase production: sugarcane is now planted on about 3 percent of Brazil's arable land, but the crop could expand onto more than 100 million acres currently used for grazing cattle. "You could probably quadruple and quintuple the cane production," says Bill Haywood, the CEO of LS9 and a former oil company executive
Ethanol Fuel in Brazil
Wikipedia - Brazil is the world's second largest producer of ethanol fuel and the world's largest exporter. Together, Brazil and the United States lead the industrial production of ethanol fuel, accounting together for 89% of the world's production in 2008. In 2008 Brazil produced 24.5 billion litres (6.47 billion U.S. liquid gallons) which represents 37.3% of the world's total ethanol used as fuel.
In December, Amyris reached an agreement to build its first farnesene plant, a 100-million-liter-per-year facility that will be constructed inside the newly built Boa Vista sugar and ethanol mill in Goiás. As part of the transaction, Amyris agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in the mill from its owner, Grupo São Martinho. Its total payment, around $80 million in cash and stock, was the highest price ever paid for milling capacity in Brazil, according to São Martinho's president, Fábio Venturelli. Amyris wanted control over the construction of its first big plant, to make sure it goes smoothly. But eventually the company plans to barter its technology for access to sugarcane juice, a less expensive approach. The idea is to have Brazil's sugar mills pay to retrofit their plants while Amyris contributes its genetically modified yeast. Amyris would then sell the farnesene and divide the profits with the mill.
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