Leading Brazilian food and fuel processor Caramuru Alimentos – one of the country’s largest grain crushing companies – has started selling soyabean-based ethanol at one of its plants, AGWeb reported.
Caramuru is one of the first companies in the world to produce at scale and sell hydrous ethanol made from soyabean molasses – a soya by-product, according to the 18 August report.
Hydrous ethanol could be used as motor fuel in Brazil, where most vehicles were able to run on 100% ethanol, the report said.
The soyabean-based ethanol was on sale at Caramuru’s plant in Sorriso, which could produce up to 9.5M litres/year of the product, AGWeb wrote.
The company was quoted as saying it expected to sell 72% of that volume in the domestic market, with the remainder used by the firm at the plant to make soyabean protein concentrate.
According to its website, Caramuru is one of Brazil’s main soyabean, corn, sunflower and canola processing companies.
Founded in 1964 by Múcio de Souza Rezende, the company is involved with the storage, logistics and industrialisation of grains – soyabean, corn, sunflower and canola – for the extraction and refining of oils, biodiesel, ethanol, lecithin and refined glycerine production.
In addition, the company exports soyabeans, soyabean meal, soyabean oil, soyabean lecithin and soyabean protein concentrate (SPC).
The company is active in the Brazilian states of Amapá, Goiás, Pará, Paraná, Mato Grosso, and São Paulo.
It operates an independent, integrated, and intermodal distribution logistics system – mainly handling soyabean complex products – and is invested in the ports of Santos and Santana in railways (São Simão Highway-Railway Terminal), and in the Tietê-Paraná and Tapajós-Amazonas waterways.
The company produces a range of consumer products under the Sinhá brand which includes olive oils, speciality oils (canola, corn and sunflower), flours, popcorns, condiments, cereals, and textured soyabean proteins. It also supplies raw materials for pasta, cookie, snack and cereal production, and for other sectors such as the brewery, mining and the feed industries.
