Shell and Cosan launch JV

The multi-billion dollar joint venture between energy and petrochemical company Shell and Cosan was launched on 2 June 2011.

Based in Brazil, Raízen will manufacture and sell more than 2 billion litres of sugarcane-derived ethanol annually.

Raízen’s 24 mills can process up to 62 million tonnes of sugarcane into biofuel a year.  

‘We are building a leading position in the most efficient ethanol-producing country in the world,’ says Peter Voser, Shell’s CEO. ‘Low-carbon, sustainable biofuels will be increasingly important in the global transport fuel mix.’

‘This is a turning point in the search for alternative energy sources,’ says Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello, chairman of the board, Cosan. ‘Raízen is one of Brazil's largest companies and is ready to offer international markets a clean, renewable and economically viable solution.’