Brazil flex mills running both cane and corn for year-round production

In Brazil, ethanol producers in the central cane belt region are using corn to fill in the production gap when cane is not in harvest for biofuel. Most Brazilian ethanol producers in the area have an idle period for three months when there is no cane harvesting, but six plants are currently operating during those idle times thanks to corn as an alternative feedstock.

“We stopped for only 15 days last year,” Vital Silva Nogueira, a manager at the flex mill unit at Usimat, which was the first flex mill in Brazil, located in Mato Grosso in the heart of Brazil’s grain belt, told Producer. Roberto Hollanda Filho, head of Biosul, an association of mills in Mato Grosso do Sul, told Producer that he believes the concept of plants using the two raw materials is feasible, especially in states with ample corn supplies such as his but that most companies in the sector currently lack funding for investments and would need to have a clearer outlook for future ethanol demand in Brazil to decide whether to raise capital to upgrade the plants.