Futuragene to Test Brazil Energy Tree That Grows 30% Faster
Futuragene, a biotechnology company owned by Brazilian pulp and paper maker Suzano Papel e Celulose SA (SUZB5), is seeking regulatory approval for a genetically altered tree that grows 30 percent faster.
Futuragene’s transgenic eucalyptus tree generates about 104 cubic meters (3,673 cubic feet) of wood a hectare a year compared with an average 80 cubic meters for trees grown for energy production in Brazil, Anthony Andrade, vice president of strategy and corporate development, said today in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo. Yields may vary by region, he said.
Futuragene uses bacteria to modify the genomes of trees and energy crops to produce more biomass that may be burnt as fuel. The new eucalyptus will help Suzano produce more pulp and energy from the same area of forest, he said.
“This is a game-changer,” he said. “Our trees are taller, thicker and faster-growing.”
The company, based in London, will plant five farms each covering 100 hectares (247 acres) by next quarter to prove to Brazil’s National Technical Commission on Biosecurity they don’t harm the environment or human health, he said.
The regulator, known as CTNBio, may approve commercial planting in three years, according to Andrade, who previously worked for Suzano and recommended the purchase of Futuragene in July 2010.
Eucalyptus ‘Champion’
“Brazil is a champion of eucalyptus productivity,” Cesar Augusto dos Reis, executive director of Associacao Brasileira de Produtores de Florestas Plantadas, Brazil’s forest association that’s known as Abraflor, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve reached a ceiling with productivity gains through selective breeding. The next big step is biotechnology.”
The new eucalyptus will be particularly suited for an $800 million energy project Suzano plans for the northeast because it grows fastest in the first couple of years, Andrade said.
Trees cultivated for power production are cut after 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years compared with seven years for those grown to make pulp and paper, Andrade said.
Futuragene, which is also carrying out field experiments in the U.S. and China, is working on a second generation of gene sequences that would “boost yields further,” he said.
Brazilian eucalyptus grown for pulp produces 41 cubic meters of wood a hectare a year, compared with about 10 cubic meters for comparable hardwood species in the U.S., according to an Abraflor report.
Pellet Project
Suzano, which owns 310,000 hectares of eucalyptus plantations, will build five plants that will process wood into pellets by 2019 and sell it as fuel to European thermoelectric facilities, Andre Dorf, president of its renewable energy arm Suzano Energia Renovavel, said by phone on Sept. 30.
Suzano received a $1.2 million grant from Brazil’s Ministry of Science of Technology to support Futuragene’s genetic bioenergy program, the company said in a Nov. 21 statement published on its website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephan Nielsen in Sao Paulo at snielsen8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
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