The pipeline will link Brazil’s main ethanol producing regions in Brazil’s mid-west, Minas Gerais and São Paulo, to the large consuming centres of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. When completed, the pipeline will have the capacity to transport 21 MMcm/a of ethanol.
Two collection centres will also be constructed, one in Uberaba in Minas Gerais, and another in Ribeirão Preto in São Paulo, aimed at receiving the ethanol from the production plants, mainly through road transportation.
The first section of the pipeline will connect Ribeirão Preto to Paulinia and is expected to be completed by mid-2012.
The second phase of the project will involve the construction of pipeline northward through states in the mid-west such as Goias.
The system will then be extended to Barueri and Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo, and Duque de Caxias in Rio Di Janeiro.