By Cameron Chai
Mitsui of Tokyo, Japan and the Dow Chemical Company have formed a joint venture and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to deliver sustainable products to the international versatile, high-performance hygiene, medical and packaging markets. This joint venture is Dow’s largest investment in Brazil.
As per the terms of the agreement, Mitsui will acquire 50% equity interest in the sugar cane growing process of Dow in Brazil. The initial scope of the partnership includes manufacturing sugar cane-derived ethanol as a renewable source for feedstock, offering innovative, biomass-based feedstocks to Dow.
Mitsui and Dow will feature a large integrated facility to produce biopolymers manufactured from clean ethanol extracted from sugar-cane. The project aims at formulating low carbon solutions to deal with the pressing issues like energy demands and climate variations.
Biopolymers manufactured at this facility will be a renewable option resulting in the manufacture of high-performance plastics with a small carbon footprint and an immediate substitute to suit the medical, packaging and hygiene markets. These Biopolymers will deliver clients a sustainable environment with the same performance.
The project will involve the building of a sugarcane-to-ethanol production plant in Santa Vitória, which is anticipated to come about in the third quarter of 2011. The project is anticipated to end before the end of 2011. Financial details of the project is not revealed.
Source: http://www.dow.com/