The companies Raízen and Geo Energética have merged in a joint venture to create the first plant in Brazil to generate electricity on a commercial scale from by-products of sugarcane. With an investment of R$ 153 million and expected to generate 20 new job vacancies, the project of the biogas plant was installed in Guariba, approximately 340 km from the capital and in the Metropolitan Region of Ribeirão Preto.
The biogas plant will use the technology of conversion of the filter cake and the vinasse, an innovation that promotes cleaner, more sustainable energy and has benefits for the consumer and for the environment. Biogas is the result of a complex production process in which it is transformed into electric energy. Purified, biogas can substitute diesel as fuel for automobiles, tractors and trucks.
The project for the plant of Guariba is supported by Investe São Paulo – Agência Paulista de Promoção de Investimentos e Competitividade – aiming at tax incentives. “We are very proud to support such an important and pioneering project for the State of São Paulo,” highlighted Sérgio Costa, director of Investe São Paulo.
“With this initiative, Raízen reinforces its pioneering quality in actions of innovation and development of the sector with focus on clean and renewable energies, aligned with public policies, such as RenovaBio. Therefore, we consolidate once more our role as protagonists of sustainability through the circular economy, by taking advantage of all waste and inputs utilized in our processes in the generation of new products,” explained João Alberto Abreu, executive vice-president of the area of Ethanol, Sugar and Energy of Raízen.
“This is a unique, 100% sustainable solution, capable of revolutionizing the treatment of organic waste of the sugar and alcohol industry, which possesses the best operating logistics in the world and is capable of becoming self-sufficient in the generation and consumption of green energy,” added Alessandro Gardemann, director of GEO Energética.
Source: Investe São Paulo
