Biofeedstock company Proterro and Bunge Global Innovation, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of global agribusiness and food company Bunge Limited (Bunge), will conduct a pilot study of Proterro’s sucrose-production technology in Brazil.

Under a joint development agreement, a pilot plant is being commissioned at Bunge’s Moema Fazenda sugarcane mill, where two of Proterro’s photobioreactors have been installed to cultivate Proterro’s cyanobacteria for production of fermentable sugars for ethanol production.

The Bunge pilot plant will replicate the operations of Proterro’s U.S. pilot plant in Orlando, Florida, where four photobioreactors are currently deployed.

Proterro’s photobioreactor, cyanobacteria and its entire sugar-making process have been granted patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.