Sapporo licenses yeast technology to Thai JV for cassava pulp ethanol production

In Thailand, a joint venture between oil retailer BTG and a tapioca producer has licensed a yeast technology developed by Japanese beer maker Sapporo in what may be the first ethanol plant to use cassava pulp as feedstock. The new company will invest $42.2 million in the facility that should produce 200,000 liters of fuel per day from 2020, when national demand for ethanol should reach 1.5 million liters per day. Sapporo’s yeast produces sugar from cassava pulp.