São Paulo, October 2020 – Raízen, an integrated energy company, opened its biogas plant this Friday (10/16). Located in Guariba, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, this is one of the largest biogas plants in the world, with a 21 MW installed capacity. This project, which started construction in 2018, reinforces the company’s commitment to energy transition through the generation and production of renewable and sustainable energy and products. The inauguration was attended by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and the minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Alburquerque, among other authorities.

The Guariba unit is part of Raízen Geo Biogás S.A., a joint venture between Raízen and Geo Energética that focuses on the production of biogas from agricultural waste. The new plant was built next to the Bonfim plant, a Raízen unit that processes more than 5 million tons of sugarcane per year, generating a high volume of vinasse and filter cake, which meets the needs of a biogas project on a commercial scale. Vinasse will be processed during the harvest and filter cake will be processed throughout the year. The expectation is that these two by-products combined will produce 138,000 MWh of energy. Investments for the construction of the 363,000 m² plant (36.3 hectares), with 153,1000 m² of built area, totaled R$ 153 million.

With this biogas plant, Raízen, a benchmark in biofuel production, assumes a strategic position in the renewable energy market. This project represents a revolution in the treatment of agro-industrial waste and solidifies the circular economy approach adopted as part of the company’s production processes.

“The inauguration of this operation shows that agricultural waste has enormous potential. With this move, we help the environment by using a source that helps to clean the Brazilian energy matrix. We also show, through results and investments, how we are able to create small transformations that have a great impact on routine, quality of life, productivity and process optimization, be it through energy cogeneration or through pellet or second-generation ethanol production,” said Ricardo Mussa, Raízen’s CEO.

The unit recently received authorization from CPFL and ANEEL and started to sell its generated energy. Of the 138,000 MWh per year of installed capacity, 96,000 MWh will be sold through a contract negotiated at a 2016 auction won by Raízen. The remaining energy may be traded on the free market or through other contracts.

The CEO of Geo Energética and Chairman of the Abiogás Board, Alessandro Gardeman, pointed out that biogas energy can be produced throughout the year, which provides energy stability for the national power grid and impacts the country’s economic development in a sustainable manner.

About Raízen

We are Raízen – an integrated energy company that is a benchmark in biofuels. We operate throughout the sugarcane production chain, up to fuel commercialization, logistics and distribution. Our energy is essential to move people and leverage businesses. Therefore, in addition to delivering energy that the market needs today, we invest in solutions that contribute to the global energy transition agenda in a gradual and sustainable manner. We are leaders in the production of biofuels and bioelectricity from sugarcane, and we continue to invest to expand our portfolio of renewable energy sources, including second-generation ethanol (E2G), biogas, biomass and solar energy generation.

With a team of 29,000 employees, we operate 26 sugar, ethanol and bioenergy production units—and a 2G ethanol plant—with an installed capacity for processing 73 million tons of sugarcane, which in the 2019-2019 crop year produced approximately 2.5 billion liters of ethanol and 3.8 million tons of sugar. We have 860,000 hectares of agricultural areas cultivated with state-of-the-art technology, with 100% mechanized harvesting. We have an installed capacity for energy generation of approximately 1GW and, in the last harvest, produced 2.1 TWh of electrical energy from sugarcane biomass. In the 2019-2020 crop year, we sold approximately 26.9 TWh of energy in the free energy market through a joint venture with WX Energy, reinforcing our trading activities in this market.

With a network of more than 7,300 Shell gas stations in Brazil and Argentina, we have presence and proximity to deliver the energy that our customers need. And through the NÓS Group (joint venture with Femsa), we operate in retail with more than 1,000 Shell Select convenience stores in gas stations and with OXXO proximity stores, an established brand in Latin America. In the B2B and retail segments, in the 2019-2020 cycle, we sold approximately 27.1 billion liters of fuel in all regions of Brazil through 67 airport supply bases and 67 fuel distribution terminals. In Argentina, where we have operated under the Shell brand since 2018, in the last cycle we sold 6.1 billion liters of fuel and maintained a network of approximately 730 Shell stations, a refinery, a lubricant plant, four land terminals and two supply bases at airports.

We are one the largest companies in Brazil in terms of revenue (R$ 120.6 billion in the 2019-2020 crop year). We create jobs and income, thereby boosting the economy, and invest in social responsibility initiatives, supporting several projects. Through the Raízen Foundation, we offer young people complementary education, encouraging people in situations of social vulnerability to discover themselves professionally and lead their own paths. We also work on developing cooperation with communities surrounding our operations; through this effort, in the 2019-2020 crop year we benefited more than 1,700 students and another 3 million people by providing professional training, education and citizenship awareness.