Renewable hydrocarbons company Amyris, Inc. has entered into a manufacturing agreement with Paraíso Bioenergia S.A., a renewable energy company producing sugar, ethanol and electricity headquartered in São Paulo State, Brazil. Under the agreement, Amyris will construct fermentation and separation capacity to produce Amyris products and Paraíso will supply sugar cane juice and other utilities; Amyris will retain the full economic benefits enabled by the sale of Amyris renewable products over the lower of sugar or ethanol alternatives.
The new production facility will be designed to process juice from up to one million tons of cane annually. By leveraging Paraíso’s infrastructure and feedstock, Amyris expects to be able to begin production at the location in 2012.
The Paraíso-based operation represents Amyris’s fifth production agreement at locations spanning three continents. Amyris expects to begin contract manufacturing production this year in Brazil at Biomin GMBH; in the US with Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas, Inc., an affiliate of Tate & Lyle PLC; and in Spain with Antibióticos. In 2012, Amyris expects to commence production at Paraíso and SMA Indústria Química S.A., Amyris’s joint venture with Grupo São Martinho.
Amyris plans to produce Biofene, Amyris’s renewable farnesene, at these facilities and then sell the farnesene directly to industrial customers or chemically finish it into a range of final products. Currently, Amyris is performing finishing under an agreement with Glycotech, Inc.
Amyris converts plant sugars into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules, which it commercializes as renewable ingredients in cosmetics, flavors and fragrances, polymers, lubricants and consumer products, and also as renewable diesel and jet fuel.