Two companies have signed a joint agreement to develop an improved first generation ethanol process with enhanced performance economics.
The agreement between Codexis and Raizen Energia S.A. announced today focuses on a range of targets, including improving performance of yeasts now used in ethanol production. Codexis is an industrial biotechnology company and Raizen is Brazil’s largest sugar and ethanol producer.
Under the terms of the agreement, Raizen and Codexis will deploy the Codexis CodeEvolver(TM) directed evolution technology platform to improve Raizen’s current process for producing ethanol made from sugar. Raizen produced 600 million gallons of ethanol in 2010. The parties anticipate pilot production at Raizen’s Bonfim mill.