Dec 31, 2021

Corn Ethanol Facility Announced for Mato Grosso do Sul

Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.

The corn ethanol sector in Brazil continues to expand unabated. The company, CerradinhoBio, recently announced that they will invest R$ 1.4 billion (approximately US$ 255 million) in the construction of a corn ethanol facility in the city of Maracaju in southwestern Mato Grosso do Sul in the center-west region of Brazil.

The facility will be built in two phases and once completed, it will have the capacity to process 1.2 million tons of corn annually and produce 550 million liters of ethanol, 330,000 tons of DDGS (Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles), 22,000 tons of oil, and 105 gigawatts of energy.

Construction on the first phase will start in March of 2022 with operations are expected to start during the second semester of 2023. The company already has a corn ethanol facility operating in the city of Chapadao do Ceu in the state of Goias.

Mato Grosso do Sul is the fourth largest corn producing state in Brazil and it is expected to produce approximately 11 million tons of corn in 2021/22. The municipality of Maracaju is the largest corn producing municipality in the state.

This CerradinhoBio facility is expected to consume approximately 10% of the state's current corn production.