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Amyris and Crystalsev Form JV for Renewable Hydrocarbon Fuels; Renewable Diesel from Sugarcane by 2010
23 April 2008
Amyris Biotechnologies, a synthetic biology company focused on developing renewable hydrocarbon biofuels (earlier post), and Crystalsev, one of Brazil’s largest ethanol distributors and marketers, are establishing a joint venture to commercialize advanced renewable fuels—including diesel, gasoline and jet fuel—made from sugarcane.
The partners are targeting their first product, a renewable diesel that works in today’s engines, for commercialization in 2010. Scale-up and testing work to date indicate that this fuel scales more quickly and economically than currently available biofuels, and reduces emissions by 80% over petroleum diesel.
Amyris Biotechnologies uses synthetic biology techniques to create new metabolic pathways in industrial microbes to produce “drop-in” hydrocarbon fuels—fuels that have the same molecular structure found in traditional petroleum fuels—through sugar fermentation.
The new joint venture, Amyris-Crystalsev Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento de Biocombustiveis Ltda, will work with Brazilian sugarcane mills and fuel producers to scale production of the Amyris renewable diesel fuel. Amyris will hold the majority stake in the Amyris-Crystalsev venture, and Crystalsev will hold the remaining stake and contribute commercialization expertise.
Santelisa Vale, the second largest ethanol and sugar producer in Brazil and majority owner of Crystalsev, has contracted to provide two million tons of sugarcane crushing capacity and plans to adopt the new technology beginning at its flagship mill, Santelisa. Santelisa Vale will also provide technical and engineering expertise to accelerate development and scale-up of the Amyris fuel. The Amyris-Crystalsev venture plans to bring other sugar producers into the fold as it launches its diesel fuel and progresses on new products.
By securing a significant supply of the most sustainable feedstock and collaborating with our world renowned partners Crystalsev and Santelisa, we now have the ability to take our pioneering technology out of the lab and rapidly scale production toward supplying the needs of the worldwide renewable fuels market.
—John Melo, CEO Amyris
As part of the scale up process, this June the partners will open a research and development headquarters in Campinas, which is located between Sao Paulo and Brazil’s sugarcane region, Ribeirao Preto. The same site will house a renewable fuels pilot facility that is expected to be operational in 2009.
The new fuels can be readily produced in existing ethanol facilities with limited manufacturing changes, which enables rapid adoption and a cost effective platform. Amyris expects to produce its fuels with a wide variety of plant and cellulosic feed stocks over time, and has elected to launch its first product with sugarcane feedstock due to both the environmental benefits of producing fuels from sugarcane and Brazil’s leadership position in alternative fuel production.
Amyris-Crystalsev plans to market its renewable fuels worldwide, with initial focus on Brazil and the United States. According to industry analyst estimates, global demand for petroleum diesel is growing at approximately four percent annually and is estimated to exceed 600 billion gallons by 2020. The Brazil diesel market is expected to grow from approximately 45 billion liters in 2007 to over 80 billion liters in 2020.
Amyris is a privately-held venture backed company whose investors include DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and TPG Biotech.
Resources
Jay D Keasling and Howard Chou (2008) Metabolic engineering delivers next-generation biofuels; Nature Biotechnology 26, 298 - 299 DOI: 10.1038/nbt0308-298
Vincent J J Martin, Douglas J Pitera, Sydnor T Withers, Jack D Newman & Jay D Keasling; (2003) Engineering a mevalonate pathway in Escherichia coli for production of terpenoids; Nature Biotechnology 21, 796 - 802 DOI: 10.1038/nbt833
Lawrence P. Wackett (2008) Microbial-based motor fuels: science and technology; Microbial Biotechnology
Robert Carlson (2008) Laying the foundations for a bio-economy; Systems and Synthetic Biology DOI: 10.1007/s11693-007-9010-z
April 23, 2008 in Biomass, Fuels, Synthetic Biology | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
"...reduces emissions by 80% over petroleum diesel."
This is very good. If they can take the stalks after crushing, gasify and FT them, the yields would be even higher.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 23, 2008 9:59:25 AM
Biogasoline is in the news a lot lately.
Posted by: Cervus | Apr 23, 2008 11:33:26 AM
If you can produce either ethanol or synthetic gasoline, which is the better fuel? If producing syngasoline, it should be rich in branched (not straight carbon chain!) aliphatics, so as to produce high octane rating without the toxicity and smog-forming propensities of aromatics.
So, how does the Amyris process do in this regard?
Posted by: Alex Kovnat | Apr 23, 2008 12:45:03 PM
Ethanol has a higher octane rating and burns cooler, so all else being equal (aside from cold-starting issues) it should be the better motor fuel.
Posted by: Reality Czech | Apr 23, 2008 1:45:47 PM
Combine the cellulose created with the previous process and use this. Algae to biofuel in a two step process.
Posted by: SJC | Apr 23, 2008 4:54:00 PM
If they can make biogasoline and biodiesel from sugarcane this way they won't be subject to the 54-cent per gallon ethanol tariff. The fact that they could be used neat in existing engines is another plus. Perhaps they should use Agrichar to increase the yields on existing fields instead of cutting down more rainforest.
Posted by: Cervus | Apr 23, 2008 6:56:09 PM
The great thing about this is that they have thought out the effects of their fuel, and the crop they are working with.
this is a great step up from ethanol which has the potential to help starve the world
Posted by: TJ | Apr 28, 2008 6:07:27 AM
