Lucas Do Rio Verde, Brasilien (ots/PRNewswire) – By capturing and storing carbon at the Lucas do Rio Verde facility, Brazil’s first corn ethanol industry could also be the first to produce carbon-negative ethanol
FS, one of the largest producers of ethanol and animal feed in Brazil, has just completed technical studies demonstrating suitable geological conditions for injecting carbon dioxide (CO2), produced in the fermentation phase of biofuel production, into the subsurface. This allows the company to become the world’s first ethanol producer with a negative carbon footprint and the first to develop BECCS (acronym for Bioenergy Production with Carbon Capture and Storage) technology for ethanol production outside the United States, according to the Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy , Alexandre Silveira, announced during the third meeting of the Energy Transition Working Group, G20, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
The introduction of the technology will avoid the release of approximately 423 thousand tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year through the operation of the industry in Lucas do Rio Verde (MT). The solution can then be used in other industrial facilities of the company, achieving a potential to remove CO2 from the atmosphere of more than 1.8 million tons of carbon per year.
The technology is an innovative solution to capture carbon, a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, and inject it into deep geological layers where it will be safely stored for thousands of years without affecting global warming.
FS, which has been working on this project for four years, drilled a stratigraphic hole to a depth of approximately 2,000 meters in October 2023 to examine the rock formations in the area beneath its Lucas do Rio Verde industry. The studies concluded that the Diamantino rock formation in the Parecis Basin in Mato Grosso has sufficient porosity and permeability conditions to inject CO2 at a depth of more than 800 meters.
There are currently only two ethanol producers in the world that have BECCS technology in operation, both in the United States. However, the industry in Mato Grosso will be the first carbon-negative industry as it uses only second-crop corn as raw material and renewable biomass from planted forests as energy source.
“The outcome of the technical study is a key milestone in driving the next steps needed to unlock investment in BECCS technology by the ethanol sector. What we need now is an improvement in emissions trading regulation and markets ” said Rafael Abud, CEO of FS. “In addition to use in automobiles, the ethanol produced with this technology can also be used to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and marine fuel, making Brazilian ethanol increasingly one of the largest contributors to the global energy transition,” he adds.
Once the Senate has approved the regulation of the activity – included in the bill for the “Fuel of the Future” program – FS will invest an additional R$ 350 million in the implementation of facilities for the capture, dewatering, compression and injection of CO2 into the subsoil invest. Work could begin this year and be completed by the end of 2025. Around 230 direct jobs will be created during the drilling, construction and assembly of the CO2 compression and dewatering systems. Recently, the project received financial support from FINEP, a public agency that promotes innovation and focuses on strategic, structuring and impactful actions for sustainable development in Brazil.
Daniel Lopes, Vice President of Sustainability and New Business at FS, stated: “This is a critical step towards realizing FS’s vision of being the largest producer of carbon negative fuels in the world. We will now move forward to monetizing this project through the “We are devoting ourselves to the sale of emission credits and waiting for the approval of the legal framework by the Senate,” he comments.
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Questions & Contact:
Presseinformationen | Ketchum_FS – Cíntia Bechiolli | cintia.bechiolli@ketchum.com.br | +55 11 95092-7519 | Jaqueline Frederes | jaqueline.frederes@ketchum.com.br | +55 11 99148-4478 | Carlos Lima | carlos.lima@fs.agr.br | +55 11 98271-0888