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BP and Copersucar to form a new ethanol joint venture in Brazil

BP Biofuels and Copersucar have agreed to form a joint venture to own and operate a major ethanol storage terminal in Brazil, better and flexibly connecting ethanol production with the country’s main fuels markets. Copersucar is the world’s leading sugar and ethanol trader, with the largest sugar and ethanol storage capacity in Brazil. BP Biofuels, part of BP’s Alternative Energy business, is a significant producer of ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil.

The 50/50 joint venture will own and operate the Terminal Copersucar de Etanol in Paulínia in the state of São Paulo, which is currently solely owned by Copersucar. Joint ownership of the terminal will support the strategies of both companies—connecting important ethanol production with flexible storage capacity close to the main ethanol consumer markets in Brazil.

BP is committed to the dual mission of delivering the energy that the world needs while advancing the low carbon world that we all want. We believe that biofuels offers one of the best large-scale solutions for decarbonising the transport sector and demand will continue to grow for decades to come. Brazil is one of the largest markets globally for ethanol as a fuel and this collaboration with Copersucar enables us to extend and expand our existing value chain to meet its growing demand.

—Dev Sanyal, BP’s CEO Alternative Energy

In addition to the shareholders’ business, the terminal will continue providing services to its current customers.

In operation since September 2014, the Paulínia terminal has ten tanks with a total storage capacity of 180 million liters of ethanol and moves around 2.3 billion liters per year, with the possibility of further expansion. The terminal is located in one of Brazil’s main fuels hubs and operates in a multimodal way, connected to important transport networks, pipelines, and will soon be connected to the railway as well.

The new joint venture will optimize ethanol logistics, with competitiveness gains and more flexibility in the way we serve the market. In addition to the values we share, the partnership with BP reinforces our commitment to the development of biofuels in Brazil.

—Paulo Roberto de Souza, President of Copersucar

The transaction and formation of the joint venture will be subject to the necessary approvals of relevant supervisory bodies. Commercial details of this transaction are not being released.

Together with BP’s US wind business, BP Biofuels is one of the main parts of BP's Alternative Energy business. In Brazil, BP Biofuels owns and operates three sugarcane processing mills—two located in Goiás State and one in Minas Gerais State—which have a combined processing capacity of 10 million tons of sugarcane per year and also 1000 GWh/year electricity generation.

Comments

Lad

Burning any fuel in the air is not good for people's health; in the case of Brazil, switching from gasoline/diesel to ethanol also produces a bad ozone problem...can't win...electric cars are still the best course to clean air:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ethanol-ozone-levels-brazil-20140501-story.html

SJC

Reform the ethanol on fuel cell hybrid buses.

CheeseEater88

I'm perplexed by the information you presented lad,

Usually hydrocarbon emissions are tied to ground level ozone. When you have an oxidized fuel such as ethanol, typically it drops, because of a hotter more complete burn.

Is it coming from tailpipes?

I'm unfamiliar with emissions equipment in that nation, but typically we've seen great results here in the states with 10% blend in. Along with other measures like evap systems and special vapor recovery nozzles. I live in one of those EPA zones.

Perhaps there is something nefarious, if gasoline is that much better than ethanol, why have we in the states have so much luck with the blending, historical data going back decades contradicts the phase in of the countermeasures i mentioned above.

CheeseEater88

Another thought is the vapor pressure of the fuels. Here in the states ethanol blends can have higher vapor pressures, as part of it being an alternative fuel. So oil companies can blend it with otherwise inferior gasoline, it also contributed to a higher octane number, allowing for a lower octane base to be used.

Other thoughts, would be that maybe one area is wealthier comparatively to other parts, leading to a disproportionate number of newer/better cars running gasoline, compared to some jalopes running around.

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