Brazil's largest grain-producing state Mato Grosso granted environmental approval for a new corn ethanol project in Nova Mutum, adding to the growing list of new projects.
The state environmental council (Consema) ruled that the project, which will have production capacity of 200mn liters (3,446 b/d) of ethanol per year, did not need to present an environmental impact study and approved the project based on a report by the state environmental secretariat (Sema).
The plant will have capacity to process 529,500 t of corn per year and will use bracharia grass as biomass feedstock to fuel the plant. The plant is scheduled to begin operating in 2020. The amount of the investment was not released.
The Novo Mutum plant will be the fourth in the state that will exclusively use corn as feedstock. Brazil's first corn-only ethanol plant, which is controlled by FS Bioenergia, is expected to conclude its expansion this month, bringing its annual production capacity to 530mn l of ethanol. The company is also building a 680mn l/yr corn ethanol plant in nearby Sorriso, which is expected to be done by 2020.
In Sinop in northern Mato Grosso, Paraguayan ethanol producer Inpasa is building a 550mn l/yr corn ethanol plant scheduled to start operating in July.
Between 1 April and 15 February, Brazil's 2018-19 corn ethanol production was up by 53pc, reaching 652mn l compared to 426.6mn l in the same period in the last harvest, according to Brazil's sugar and ethanol producers' association Unica.
Unica said eight mills are currently producing corn ethanol. In addition to the corn-only ethanol mill, a growing number of cane sugar and ethanol producers in the center-west region have capacity to process both corn and sugar cane, allowing them to operate during the cane crop's inter-harvest period.
Brazil's total 2018-19 corn harvest is expected to reach 91.65mn t, up from 80.7mn t in the previous season but still shy of the record 97.8mn t harvested in 2016-17, according to the official crop supply agency Conab.
