Cosan
Encyclopedia
Cosan is a public company, a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...

 producer of bioethanol, sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 and energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

.

Biography

Cosan began in 1936 in Piracicaba
Piracicaba
Piracicaba is a city located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The population in 2009 was 368,843 in an area of 1,369.511 km², at an elevation of 547 m above sea level.-Name:...

 city in State of São Paulo, with the founding of its first factory for milling of sugar cane. From the second half of the 1980s, it quickly expanded operations through the acquisition of several factories in the State of São Paulo. Cosan cultivates, collects and processes sugar cane, the main raw material used in the production of sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 and ethanol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...

. About 5% of all sugar and 4% of all ethanol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...

 consumed worldwide originates in Cosan sugar mills. Its 23 plants occupy almost 600,000 hectares of land and employ 45,000 people. The company owns the two largest brands of sugar in Brazil, Açucar União and Da Barra.

Purchases and mergers

On April 24, 2008 Cosan announced the purchase of the portfolio of downstream
Downstream
-Science:* In geography, away from the source of a stream or river* In meteorology, away from the source of an air parcel or mass, along the normal direction of water or air flow* Downstream , in computer or telecommunications networks...

 fuel distribution plants from Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...

 in Brazil.

On March 13, 2009, the Group confirmed the incorporation of NovAmérica Agroenergia through a stock exchange operation between the Cosan and holding
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

 Rezende Barbosa, controller of NovAmérica. With the acquisition, the group Cosan reinforces its position as the largest producer of sugar and alcohol in the world and will have an annual processing capacity of around 56 million tonnes of sugar cane, 10% of the Brazilian market, managing 23 plants.

Joint-Venture with Royal Dutch Shell

On February 1, 2010 Cosan and Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 announced the creation of a joint venture that will bring together the operations of sugar, ethanol and the distribution and marketing of fuels in Brazil. The joint venture will form the third largest distribution company in Brazil and the world's largest bioenergy
Bioenergy
Bioenergy is renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources. Biomass is any organic material which has stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy. As a fuel it may include wood, wood waste, straw, manure, sugarcane, and many other byproducts from a variety of...

operation. The company is valued at US$ 12 billion and will start with a revenue of R$ 40 billion.
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