By Renewable Energy Focus staff

Raízen will be a retail and commercial biofuel company operating in Brazil. It will produce and sell over 2 billion litres of biofuel annually.

The JV could distribute biofuel and over 20 billion litres of other industrial and transport fuels annually through a combined network of nearly 4500 Shell service stations.

Raízen's 24 mills can process up to 62 million tonnes of cane into sugar or ethanol each year, Shell and Cosan say.

"The Raízen business model, which combines Shell and Cosan assets and has direct access to consumers, is a breakthrough in the biofuels sector,” says Marcos Marinho Lutz, Cosan CEO.

As a member of Bonsucro, formerly the Better Sugarcane Initiative, Raízen has joined with other producers, non-governmental organisations and other experts to establish an EU-approved certificate for sustainable sugar-cane production. This covers areas such as human rights and the impact of activities on biodiversity.

Raízen is working towards achieving certification for all ethanol produced by its own operations over the coming years. It also plans to have certified all ethanol produced from suppliers' cane.