SAO PAULO, April 24: A new diesel biofuel derived from sugarcane is to be launched in Brazil after an accidental discovery made while researching malaria cures, the US and Brazilian companies producing it said.

John Melo, the head of the US company Amyris involved, explained that one of his bio-engineers stumbled on the process while working on the Artemisia anti-malaria medicine.

Although the technology could make a variety of fuels, Amyris decided to make diesel with Brazilian partner Crystalsev because of demand for that product was “two to three times higher than for petrol.”

He asked that the sugarcane diesel not be called “biodiesel” because that term is already applied to a fuel made from grains containing oil.

The two companies are to initially invest $10 million to install offices in Sao Paulo and build a factory that will experiment with the new fuel.—AFP