BP Biofuels to build flexible ethanol and sugar facility in southwest Brazil

In Brazil, BP Biofuels will invest $345m at Usina Tropical in Edeia to refurbish a distillery into a flexible, state-of-the-art ethanol and sugar production facility. Depending on prices, the production split will be 40-60% for either ethanol or sugar, compared to the typical 45-55%. The project will create 7,600 direct and indirect jobs by 2014 with an annual production of 500m liters. The plant will also cogenerate electricity from waste and sugarcane bagasse with an estimated 340 GWh to be sold to the national power grid.