In Brazil, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) recently announced it will provide R$49.3 million ($12.63 million) in financing to the Grupo JP Andrade (Grupo Cerradão) to support a project that aims to increase capacity at a biorefinery located in the south-central region of the country.

Information released by BNDES indicates the loan will enable the company to increase ethanol production, storage capacity and biomass power generation capacity at its plant in Frutal in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.  

The facility has been in operation since the 2009-’10 season. The loan provided by BNDES will allow its ethanol production capacity to more than double, from 600 cubic meters per day to 1,850 cubic meters per day. According to BNDES, the loan will also finance equipment upgrades that will allow the facility flexibility to allocate up to 100 percent of the sugarcane processed at the plant to ethanol production.

Additional upgrades at the facility will increase power generation capacity from 55 MW to 105 MW. Once complete, the new power generation equipment will allow the facility to export approximately 250,000 MWh per harvest.

The loan will also support the installation of 20,000 cubic meters of additional ethanol storage, bringing the facility’s total storage capacity to 60,000 cubic meters. In addition, the financing will also support renovation and expansion of the sugarcane planting area to an estimated 2,182 hectares (5,391.84 acres).

Additional information is available on the BNDES website.