Byogy partners with EMBRAPA to import select agave to Brazil to validate high crop sugar and fibre yields

Byogy Renewables, a biofuels producer based in San Jose, CA, acting through its AusAgave Agricultural Division Headquartered in Aldgate, Australia, has executed an MoU and Work Plan with EMBRAPA, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, a Brazilian Government institution under the Ministry of Agriculture, to introduce adapted agave plants from Australia into Brazil to evaluate sugar and fibre production in semi-arid regions where agave can thrive and sugarcane cannot.

Agave varietals, specific for sisal fibre, were first introduced into Brazil in 1903 and have been in commercial production ever since. However, in order to capture high sugar yields with new varieties of agave, large scale farms must be planted requiring investments in harvest and process mechanisation equipment specific to agave.

'We recognized from the start that large scale harvesting equipment will be key to successful commercialisation of agave,' says Don Chambers, CEO of AusAgave. 'Using a world class equipment developer, we have already finalised a design that will efficiently handle the job.'

The joint Embrapa/Byogy Agave Project will establish agave field plantings in several different locations throughout Brazil's Northeast Region to validate low cost sugar production for Byogy's full replacement renewable gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, as well as fibre production for renewable fibre board and carbon fibre filler alternatives.

Embrapa's mission is to provide solutions through scientific research, development and innovation for the sustainability of agriculture.

AusAgave has spent the last 15 years developing intellectual property maximizing agave as the highest sugar and fibre producing crop in the world which can be grown on marginal land with low water and fertilizer demand. 'We have already field proven that we can achieve US $0.07 (€0.06) per pound sugars,' says Chambers. 'This programme will support our current efforts that clearly show a path to under US $0.05 per pound by 2020. This represents an across the board impact on economics compared to any other sugar crop.'

'Sugar at $0.05 per pound plus the sale of agave fibres make renewable aviation fuel more competitive with today's crude oil today,' says Byogy CEO Kevin Weiss. 'Enhancing a high sugar and fibre producing biomass crop requiring less inputs, and being more drought tolerant, stress tolerant, and herbicide tolerant than any other crop we have seen, opens the door for successful conversion to a carbohydrate economy from a fossil economy.'