Amyris extends partnerships with Total, Cosan

Biofuels and biochemicals company Amyris confirmed that French oil giant Total will provide US$30 million of funding to Amyris by July 2013, and will form a joint venture by mid-2013 to market renewable diesel fuel, jet fuel and other specialty products derived from Biofene, Amyris’s renewable brand of farnesene.
Amyris produces Biofene in Brazil from ethanol derived from sugarcane.
Amyris said it has also agreed to expand its Novvi joint venture with Brazilian ethanol producer Cosan to include renewable additives and finished lubricants for industrial, commercial and automotive uses, in addition to the joint venture’s original scope of renewable base oils for these markets.
The company said it has met the technical milestones at its production plant in Brazil to satisfy the conditions for a follow-on common stock investment of US$5 million from Biolding Investment, an investment company owned by HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani of Qatar. The private placement represented the final tranche of Biolding’s pre-existing contractual obligation to fund US$15.0 million.
“Amyris is delivering on a track-record of focused execution and collaboration. We continue to meet or exceed the technical milestones for our collaboration with Total and work closely to commercialize products under the Amyris-Total fuels joint venture,” said John Melo, Amyris president and CEO.
“With Cosan, we have expanded the scope of our joint venture’s product portfolio beyond base oils to a range of industrial, commercial, and automotive additives and lubricants derived from Biofene. And, thanks to the successful performance of our first industrial-scale farnesene production facility in Brazil, we met the conditions for an additional investment from one of our leading stockholders.”