There has been quite a bit of activity in Brazil during the last few months of 2009 and it looks like it will continue. Bunge Limited announced today that it will become the 100 percent owner of Usina Moema Participacoes S.A. Moema Par is a holding company that owns one sugarcane mill and has ownership in five others. Together the six mills, known as the Moema Group, have the capacity to crush 15.4 metric tons. This agreement, which is structured as a share exchange worth approximately $896 million, gives Bunge 60 percent effective share of the total capacity.
“This transaction fulfills Bunge’s strategic goal of building a large-scale, fully integrated business in sugar and bioenergy,” stated Alberto Weisser, Chairman and CEO of Bunge Limited. “It adds significant scale to our current milling operations and enables us to vary production among multiple sugar and ethanol products, according to market conditions. The Moema Group cluster is also strategically located near large domestic markets in Brazil and has excellent access to export logistics systems. All of these strengths make it a perfect fit with our global trading and marketing operations.”
The Moema Group cluster is located on the border of São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, the two largest domestic ethanol markets in Brazil. According to Bunge, the mills benefit from cost savings due to their cluster configuration, and have favorable road and rail access to three of Brazil’s largest export ports (Santos, Paranagua and Vitoria). The mills can produce both raw and crystal sugar, as well as hydrous and anhydrous ethanol. In addition, the mills have co-generation facilities, are self-sustaining in terms of energy requirements and sell excess power to the grid. The majority of the cluster’s sugarcane is harvested mechanically, which is now law in São Paulo.
According to Bunge, they may enter into agreements to secure some of all of the remaining interests in the mills that comprise the Moema Group in the next few weeks.
The new 
A high voltage power line that runs from near Duluth, Minnesota to just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota will soon convert to carrying clean wind energy power.
A 
Georgia 
The new year has brought some bad news for the biodiesel industry. As expected, the $1-per-gallon federal tax incentive expired at the end of December 2009. And, as expected, some biodiesel makers have had to idle their plants after losing the tax credit.
“The 20 percent reduction was a challenging goal,” said Alan Jones, manager of the environmental policy office at TDOT. The problem, he noted, is that there aren’t enough E85 and biodiesel stations to serve all the state vehicles. According to TDOT, there are just 33 pumps across the state selling B20 and only 27 pumps provide E85. 
With much of the United States experiencing record cold and snow right now, this decorative yet practical German-engineered ethanol fireplace could be just the ticket for a little extra warmth from room to room.
In fact, corn growers on a recent 
It’s New Year’s Eve, and many people will be stepping out on the town, riding in style in a limousine. But some folks will be able go green while they go swanky, thanks to Seattle’s first eco-friendly limo service, 
During this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we talk to company president Kevin Williams, who has four limos running on the green fuel, cutting CO2 emissions by 80 percent or more. Williams credits at least two ladies, Sharon, who made her own biodiesel for her Jetta, and Zoe, who is the kind of person who volunteered to rescue dogs after Hurricane Katrina, for inspiring him to continue in the green venture, despite some roadblocks put up by the State of Washington … which tries to sell itself as being an eco-friendly state.
It’s a pretty cool conversation, and you can hear more of it here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/DFCast-12-31-09.mp3]
As we prepare to begin a new decade, the Renewable Fuels Association is taking just a moment to look back at the decade that saw ethanol emerge as the leading renewable fuel alternative to our dependence on foreign oil.