Exclusive Biomass Investment in Brazil

Fortaleza, Brazil, March 18, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Giant Carajas Grass (Elephant Grass) represents the state of the art agribusiness from both agricultural and industrial perspectives. Intense research and years of market experience have brought Elephant Grass into a high degree of efficacy in achieving high yield biomass production.

Embrapa (the Brazilian Agriculture and Livestock Research Company) and Matsuda (a company with considerable expertise in seeds and plant genetics) have developed Elephant Grass to a point where it is possible to achieve from 40 to 80 tonnes of dry mass per hectare, per year. The crop is fully established after 6 months.

This is a high yield Giant Carajas Grass plantation project, benefiting from short, medium and long-term profits secured with leasehold land titles. ECB’s professional plantation management team is led by the Agribusiness Director Carlos Duarte, along with highly skilled agronomy engineering from third party technology suppliers Netafim (the Israeli irrigation experts, present in some 83 countries), Matsuda (seeds and plant genetics), Eletrovale (turnkey irrigation and infrastructure provider) and IFCE (a renowned local agronomy school).

In the “Tabuleiros de Russas” Irrigated District, all infrastructures, facilities and licensing are already in place, as well as a water guarantee: in average, ECB land has 1.3 liters per second per hectare available each 24hrs.

The project is located on the border of a main road directly connecting Ceará with all the major cities in Brazil, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Giant Carajas Grass enjoys a wide variety of applications apropos at least five consolidated and growing markets: these being mainly, though not exclusively, centered on Brazil, Europe and the US:

· Animal feedstock
Elephant grass varieties are commonly used in a cut-and carry system which makes for a feedstock that can be fed in stalls.

· Biomass pellets and briquettes
Elephant Grass achieves 40-80 tonnes of dry mass per hectare per year (TDM/ha/y) which a much higher yield when compared to Eucalyptus (mainly used in Brazil to produce cellulose and charcoal). Eucalyptus delivers up to 20 (TDM/ha/y).

· Activated carbon
Activated carbon can also be made out of Elephant Grass biomass. There are various types: fine powder, pills or flakes. Activated carbon is used to bleach and absorb odor in sugar industry, to produce cooking oil in food industry and also for water purification.

· Bio-Ethanol
Applying second generation cellulosic technologies make it possible to obtain up to 100 us gallons of bio-fuels per each tonne of dry mass. With Carajas Grass biomass yields, over 15.000 liters of bio-ethanol, per hectare, per year, can be achieved.

Main Advantages:
Giant Carajas Grass, a high-yield dedicated energy crop operates as a low carbon, renewable replacement for coal to generate electricity and heat and as a nonfood feedstock for second-generation liquid biofuels that can act to replace fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel.

ECB also manufactures and sells Giant Carajas Grass Pellets.

Biomass is an important renewable energy source for both developing and industrialized countries. Heavy dependence on coal and imported petroleum has led to a major increase in global carbon dioxide emissions and to significant geopolitical, economic and environmental issues.

Giant Carajas Grass can be used as a feedstock to make Grassoline, liquid transportation biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol, butanol and green gasoline and to produce biochemical and bio- plastics.

Giant Carajas Grass is a non-food crop and can be grown on marginal lands.

Giant Carajas Grass is low cost because of its extremely high yield and meets the cost targets of green energy applications. Electricity produced from burning Giant Carajas Grass comes at roughly a quarter of the cost of electricity from solar energy and half the cost of wind energy.

Giant Carajas Grass pellets can be used to replace up to 20% of coal in existing power plants. This reduces carbon emissions by 20% while preserving the large capital investment and allows power companies to meet carbon dioxide emissions reduction requirements over the next 10 to 30 years.

Energy Crops Brazil is focusing its efforts on two complementary areas of research and operation:

a) The production of Giant Carajas Grass, a high yield energy crop, combined with b) Cost efficient industrial processing into Biomass Pellets.

ECB is a Brazilian company dedicated to the production of high performance biomass crops, operating on both the agricultural, industrial and services sides of the business. The directors have more than 18 years of experience in the agribusiness and renewable energy sector in Brazil.

ECB’s agricultural production is based on its own professional farms located at “Tabuleiros de Russas” Irrigated District, in the state of Ceará, Northeast Brazil.