With 500 million reais, BNDES will support 3tentos' new corn ethanol plant

By BNDES

November 7, 2024

This is a machine translation of the press release originally published in Portuguese.

The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) approved financing totaling R$500 million for Três Tentos Agroindustrial S/A to implement a new ethanol plant using corn and sorghum in the city of Porto Alegre do Norte (MT).

With this amount, 3tentos' new ethanol plant will have the initial capacity to produce 935,000 liters of biofuel, 587 tons of dried distillers grains (DDGS) and 37 tons of corn oil per day. In addition, the resources will allow the implementation of a steam and electricity cogeneration plant using biomass, with a generation capacity of up to 184,000 MWh per year.

“Brazil currently has an installed capacity of 6.4 billion liters of ethanol and projects underway total another 2 billion liters. By 2025, corn ethanol production is expected to inject around 20% into Brazil’s total supply, a result that is in line with President Lula’s industrial policy and the Climate Fund’s guidelines to support the implementation of projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” explains BNDES President Aloizio Mercadante.

Ethanol production is new for 3tentos and the use of sorghum in addition to corn represents the introduction of a new raw material for biofuel in Brazil. The new unit is being built north of the Araguaia Valley, a region that is undergoing a full expansion of cereal planting areas, and will produce anhydrous fuel ethanol (EAC) and hydrated fuel ethanol (EHC), in addition to producing animal feed (DDG's), a product with high protein content, aimed at beef cattle in confinement, and vegetable oil.

“This project reinforces the 3tentos ecosystem and our purpose of promoting the evolution of the countryside alongside rural producers. With the corn and sorghum ethanol industry, we will help boost the economic and social development of the Araguaia Valley, contributing to the expansion of production and transforming it into food and renewable fuel. This is agribusiness working towards a more sustainable world,” reinforces Luiz Osório Dumoncel, CEO and founder of 3tentos.

According to José Luís Gordon, Director of Productive Development, Innovation and Foreign Trade at BNDES, the project reinforces BNDES’s role in promoting, supporting and financing ESG initiatives focused on decarbonizing the Brazilian transportation sector. “From January to October of this year, the Bank’s credit approvals for the biofuels sector totaled R$3.9 billion, the second highest in the historical series, which began in 2005. The record for approvals, of R$4.5 billion, was achieved in 2010,” he said.

About 3tentos – Founded in 1995 in the city of Santa Bárbara do Sul (RS), the publicly traded company has had shares traded on B3 since 2021. It has more than 2,000 employees. It is supported by 68 stores, 168 technical consultants, three industrial parks, two research centers, two seed processing units and a fertilizer mixer, in addition to 24,000 active customers, offering training, consulting and technical services to producers.