The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) has approved financing worth R$500 million, with resources from the Climate Fund, for Alvorada Bioenergia, part of the Alvorada Agricultural Group, to implement a corn-based ethanol production plant in the municipality of Canarana (MT). The new unit will have an estimated annual production capacity of up to 222 m3 of ethanol, 147 tons of dried distillers grains (DDGS) and 8 tons of crude oil.
For the design and construction of the plant, Alvorada will use technology that is unprecedented in Brazil, supplied by the German company Volgelbush, and which was successfully used in the implementation of ethanol plants in Córdoba, Argentina, in Mount Vernon, Indiana (USA) and in Ravenna, Nebraska (USA).
The new plant will be the first large-scale industrial project located in the area surrounding the BR-158 highway, a region that is currently characterized by cattle ranching as its main economic activity. In addition to ensuring a constant demand for corn stored and sold by Alvorada, the new plant will contribute to the generation of jobs and income in nearby communities, stimulating the economy of the western region of Mato Grosso. Approximately 300 direct and indirect jobs will be created.
“In President Lula’s government, the New Climate Fund has as one of its guidelines the production of biofuels in a strategic action for the effort to decarbonize the economy, contributing to reducing the emission of atmospheric pollutants and avoiding the emission of greenhouse gases”, he explains.
“The corn ethanol plant will be a milestone for both our company and the Araguaia Valley, which will gain a new reference in renewable energy production,” says Jarbas Weis, CEO of Alvorada Bioenergia.
According to the director of Productive Development, Innovation and Foreign Trade, José Luís Gordon, “the project to implement the new corn ethanol plant is also aligned with the industrial policy that prioritizes financing technological solutions for the decarbonization of the Brazilian transport sector."
Founded in 2002 in the municipality of Primavera do Leste (MT), Grupo Agrícola Alvorada operates in the grain supply chain (corn and soybeans), with an estimated daily grain receiving capacity of 88.500 tons, an estimated daily shipping capacity of 59.000 tons, and a total static storage capacity of approximately 1,8 million tons. The company, which employs 772 people and has just under 300 seasonal employees, has 19 storage units in 12 municipalities in the state.
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