In addition to the Port of Santos, the pipeline will serve five other proposed terminals in BrazilBrazil Renewable Energy Co. (Brenco) plans to invest $1 billion (€650 million) to build a 1,100km, 4 million litre a year ethanol pipeline extending from Alto Taquari in Mato Grosso state to Santos, the country’s largest port, in Sao Paulo state on the country’s south Atlantic seaboard. Brenco has applied to Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama and the national petroleum agency ANP for the necessary licenses to construct the pipeline. Brenco says its line would not compete with other ethanol pipelines planned by state-owned Petrobras.

In addition to the Port of Santos, the pipeline will serve five other proposed terminals at Alto Taquari in Mato Grosso; Costa Rica in Mato Grosso do Sul; Paranaiba in Goias state; and Sao Jose do Rio Preto and Paulinia, both in the state of Sao Paulo.

Brenco has also begun construction on its real sugar and ethanol mill in Alto Taquari. The facility will process 3 million tonnes of sugarcane and produce 275 million litres of ethanol by 2009.

The Alto Taquari mill will be the first of 10 units Brenco plans to build in Brazil by 2009 having a combined capacity of 3.7 billion litres a year of ethanol. All of the output will be carried by the proposed ethanol pipeline, which may also ship ethanol produced by other operators in the region.

In 2007, Brazil exported just over 3 billion litres of ethanol, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Development and Foreign Trade. The Port of Santos handled some 60% of the exports, followed by the Port of Paranagua with around 23%.

The country’s ethanol exports are expected to reach 3.91 billion litres in 2008-09, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Development and Foreign Trade.

Brazil’s total ethanol production in 2007 was reported to be 20-22 billion litres. Production is expected to exceed 100 billion litres a year by 2025, according to ICIS Chemical Business.