Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
12/2/2010
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
The National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) yesterday approved the commercial release of a genetically modified yeast that allows the production of diesel using cane sugar. It is the first time a GM such is approved by the committee.
In its first plenary session after the change of command, the court also approved the commercial use of two kinds of modified soybean resistant to glufosinate ammonium pesticide. The soybeans were produced by Bayer.
There was also the release of two transgenic animal vaccines. With this brings to eight the number of vaccines approved for commercial release by the committee, composed of 27 members.
The meeting yesterday was led by the new president of the college, the researcher at Embrapa Edilson Paiva.
PRODUCTION
With the green light CTNBio, Usina Boa Vista, located in the city of Goias Pirenópolis, must complete the construction of a production line of diesel made from sugar cane. The expectation is that in 2011, are produced 2 million tons of product, which, like ethanol, is less aggressive to the environment than fossil fuel.
"He has no sulfur, it produces fewer particulate matter and is renewable. All this reduces the impact on global warming," said Luciana di Ciero, manager of regulatory affairs and institutional relations of the company that developed the product, Amyris.
Approval must also speed up the negotiation with other stations interested in new product development. So far, no country in the world to commercially produce diesel from sugarcane.
Yeast is a fungus widely used in the production of wine, rum and baking bread. The kind approved yesterday had its DNA altered, which makes now able to produce a precursor of diesel, the farnesene. "The release increases the ratio of products derived from sugarcane. Now, in addition to sugar, ethanol also serve as raw material for diesel and other products for the chemical industry," says Luciana. In this list are, for example, lubricants.
The development of transgenic yeast is the unfolding of another project, initiated in 2004 to produce a drug to fight malaria, made from a plant called Artemisia. Since 2006, building on knowledge already accumulated, the company Amyris started to invest in development of genetically modified yeast.
For the design of diesel, the company received in just one year, US$ 100 million of funds from venture capital. These investments Votorantim New Business.
Luciana says no changes are needed in the drivers for using the new product. The project is to use, at first, a blend of diesel cane sugar and diesel fuels. In the first stage, the idea is to mix 10% of the new product with 90% of fossil diesel.
"It was the solution, because there is no guarantee the market supply in large scale," says Luciana. The plants, in turn, would have to make small changes in its facilities for production of new diesel. "There are few changes," he says.
In addition to diesel sugarcane, Amyris is developing a fuel for aviation, also from the cane sugar. There are agreements for use of the product with the U.S. Air Force, the Brazilian Aeronautics Company (Embraer) and Blue company, which will experiment with the new fuel by 2012. "Everything is done with yeast. The research platform is the same, what varies is the genetic modification," says the manager.
Source: Portal do Jornal O Estado de Sao Paulo
Ligia Formenti - BRASILIA
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.