{"id":25274,"date":"2015-03-31T03:18:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T01:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=25274"},"modified":"2015-03-30T19:46:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T17:46:45","slug":"ceres-and-raizen-sign-multi-year-collaboration-to-scale-up-sweet-sorghum-for-ethanol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/ceres-and-raizen-sign-multi-year-collaboration-to-scale-up-sweet-sorghum-for-ethanol\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceres and Ra\u00edzen sign multi-year collaboration to scale-up sweet sorghum for ethanol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ceres, Inc. (Nasdaq: CERE), an agricultural biotechnology company, and Brazilian energy company Ra\u00edzen S.A., today announced that they have signed a multi-year collaboration agreement to develop and produce sweet sorghum on an industrial scale. Sweet sorghum can be grown to complement existing feedstock supplies and extend the operating season of Brazilian sugarcane-to-ethanol mills.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the collaboration, the companies will each contribute in-kind services and resources and share in the revenue from the ethanol produced from Ceres\u2019 sweet sorghum above certain levels. This season, Ra\u00edzen has planted Ceres\u2019 sweet sorghum evaluation in a single location and plans to expand to multiple mills in the seasons to come.<\/p>\n

Ceres President and CEO Richard Hamilton said that the company is pleased to be working more closely with Ra\u00edzen, which has taken a leading role in adopting new agricultural and industrial technologies. \u201cThe ethanol industry in Brazil has a history of successfully competing against low-priced oil and we believe that sweet sorghum, which has lower production costs than sugarcane, can be further developed and scaled up as an integral part of the industry\u2019s feedstock supply,\u201d said Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Ra\u00edzen, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan, has taken a keen interest in developing and scaling up sweet sorghum as a means to grow margins and increase supply for its sugar and ethanol facilities. The company has conducted field and industrial evaluations of Ceres\u2019 sweet sorghum hybrids since 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the past seasons we have made significant and measureable improvements in performance and we remain optimistic that sweet sorghum can be used to rapidly scale up feedstock supplies following the current downturn in the sector,\u201d said Antonio Stuchi, Agro industrial director from Ra\u00edzen.\u00a0 \u201cBy working with Ceres, we have early access to the latest innovations in seed products and leading experts in sorghum crop management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Franco, General Manager of Ceres Sementes do Brazil, said that the collaboration can facilitate adoption of Ceres sweet sorghum products and best practices throughout the sector. \u201cBy collaborating more closely with Ra\u00edzen, we can continue to drive yields higher and address the industry’s need for additional feedstock supply,\u201d said Franco.<\/p>\n

In addition to sweet sorghum, Ceres markets high biomass sorghum to mills and other agri-industrial facilities for use in generating electricity, heat and steam in Brazil. In the U.S., Ceres is marketing improved forage sorghum hybrids to dairies and livestock producers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Ra\u00edzen<\/h3>\n

Ra\u00edzen, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan, is Brazil\u2019s fifth largest company in terms of revenue and the nation\u2019s leading producer of sugarcane ethanol. With 24 sugar and ethanol facilities, the company produces more than 2 billion liters of ethanol, 4.5 million tons of sugar and 900 MW of electricity from biomass each year. Ra\u00edzen is also present in 58 airports, has 60 distribution terminals and sells approximately 23 billion liters of fuel to transport segments, industry and retail. Ra\u00edzen has a network of more than 5,000 Shell brand service stations over 900 Shell Select convenience stores.<\/p>\n

About Ceres<\/h3>\n

Ceres, Inc. is an agricultural biotechnology company that develops and markets seeds to produce crops for markets that utilize plant biomass, including biofuels, renewable electricity and livestock feed and forage. The company\u2019s technology platforms, which can increase crop productivity, improve quality, reduce crop inputs and improve cultivation on marginal land, have broad application across multiple crops, including food, feed, fiber and fuel crops. Ceres markets its seed products under its Blade brand. The company also licenses its biotech traits and technology, including its Persephone genome visualization software, to other organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ceres, Inc. (Nasdaq: CERE), an agricultural biotechnology company, and Brazilian energy company Ra\u00edzen S.A., today announced that they have signed a multi-year collaboration agreement to develop and produce sweet sorghum on an industrial scale. Sweet sorghum can be grown to complement existing feedstock supplies and extend the operating season of Brazilian sugarcane-to-ethanol mills. Under the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[391,13054,4042,647],"class_list":["post-25274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-ceres-inc","supplier-cosan-s-a-industria","supplier-raizen","supplier-shell-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25274"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=25274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}