Casterra to sell its unique castor seed varieties and provide
its significant experience in castor cultivation, for the biofuel
production of one of the world's major energy companies
REHOVOT, Israel, Jan. 19,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Casterra Ag Ltd. ("Casterra"),
the integrated castor cultivation solution company and a subsidiary
of Evogene Ltd. ("Evogene") (Nasdaq: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN), announced
today that it has entered into an agreement with one of the world's
leading energy companies, whereby Casterra will provide its unique
castor varieties and its broad know-how in cultivation of castor at
a commercial scale for biofuel production.
Under the framework of the agreement, the initial focus is the
purchase agreement of castor seed varieties from Casterra for
growing castor in specific African territories and the provision of
technical support. The agreement also allows for the potential for
long-term cooperation in castor cultivation between this customer
and Casterra, with the potential for expansion into additional
territories on the African continent.
Biofuels have significant advantages over conventional
petrochemical fuels, primarily being a renewable source and
biodegradable, with significantly less negative environmental
impact than other alternative fuel sources. Under the carbon
life-cycle, castor is considered a carbon–neutral fuel, since the
emissions linked with its combustion are comparatively similar to
the carbon dioxide emissions absorbed during the growth of the
source plants1. Technically, castor has other
important advantages such as inherent lubricity, low toxicity,
superior flash point, negligible sulfur content and cleaner exhaust
emissions2.
Oil derived from the castor bean has further advantages as a
source for biofuel over other vegetable oils, due to its higher
proportion of energy-rich, fatty hydroxy-acids. Additional
advantages making it industrially useful include a low melting
point and low solidification point, and castor has the most stable
viscosity of any vegetable-derived oils. Furthermore, castor as a
crop, poses minimal competition for land with conventional food
crops or edible oils, due to its hardiness and tolerance to
stresses, and can be cultivated on marginal land areas which
otherwise would not be used3.
Casterra's mission is to provide the most genetically advanced
castor bean seed varieties, tailored to humanity's eco-friendly
energy needs of today, with a complete comprehensive ag-service
solution to castor cultivators and manufacturers. Based on
Evogene's plant genomic capabilities via its GeneRator AI
tech-engine, Casterra has developed proprietary castor seed
varieties that enable a high-yield and high-quality crop, with
oil-rich content that lend themselves well to efficient and
industrialized cultivation methods (mechanized harvesting
process).
Eyal Ronen, CEO of Casterra,
commented, "We are very proud to be supporting a major
multinational energy company, one of the world's seven supermajor
oil companies, by providing our advanced castor seed varieties and
guiding their activities in the castor cultivation arena. We
strongly support the biofuel production based on castor oil, which
has been proven to be a highly clean and effective source of
renewable energy. This new agreement has significant potential for
future growth and strengthens our position in the castor biofuel
market."
About Casterra Ag Ltd.:
Casterra is engaged in
developing and commercializing high-yielding castor bean seeds as a
cost-competitive, sustainable, second-generation feedstock for the
growing biofuel market. It has built its castor genetic assets
based on a broad collection of over 300 castor lines from over 40
different geographic and climatic regions. As part of its
development process, Casterra applies advanced breeding methods
utilizing Evogene's Generator AI tech-engine, enabling the
use of cutting-edge plant genomics tools and agro-technique
expertise to enable efficient and sustainable industrial-scale
production of the castor bean.
For additional information, please visit Casterra's website at:
http://www.casterra.com
About Evogene Ltd.:
Evogene (Nasdaq: EVGN) (TASE:
EVGN) is a computational biology company aiming to revolutionize
the development of life-science-based products by utilizing
cutting-edge technologies to increase the probability of success
while reducing development time and cost. Evogene established three
unique technological engines - MicroBoost AI, ChemPass
AI, and GeneRator AI – leveraging Big Data and Artificial
Intelligence and incorporating deep multidisciplinary understanding
in life sciences. Each technological engine is focused on the
discovery and development of products based on one of the following
core components: microbes (MicroBoost AI), small molecules
(ChemPass AI), and genetic elements (GeneRator AI). Evogene uses
its technological engines to develop products through subsidiaries
and strategic partners.
Evogene's main subsidiaries utilize the technological
engines to develop human microbiome-based therapeutics by Biomica
Ltd., medical cannabis products by Canonic Ltd., ag-chemicals by Ag
Plenus Ltd., and ag-biologicals by Lavie Bio Ltd.
For more information, please visit
www.evogene.com.
Forward Looking Statements:
This press release
contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events.
These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "could",
"expects", "intends", "anticipates", "plans", "believes",
"scheduled", "estimates", "demonstrates", or words of similar
meaning. For example, Evogene and Casterra are using
forward-looking statements in this press release when they discuss
the results of the collaboration between Casterra and the
multinational energy company, including potential commercial scale
production, Casterra's castor seeds' advantages and biofuels'
advantages, the ability of the new agreement to have
significant potential for future growth and strengthen Casterra's
position in the castor biofuel market, the expansion of the
areas of cultivation and of the collaboration to other countries
and territories. Such statements are based on current expectations,
estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about
future events, and involve certain risks and uncertainties which
are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future
performance and the potential of the technology underscoring their
castor activities. Therefore, actual future results, performance or
achievements of Evogene and its subsidiaries may differ materially
from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond
the control of Evogene and its subsidiaries, including, without
limitation, those risk factors contained in Evogene's reports filed
with applicable securities authorities. Evogene and its
subsidiaries disclaim any obligation or commitment to update these
forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments
or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and
assumptions.
Evogene Investor
Contact:
|
|
Kenny Green
Email:
kenny.green@evogene.com
Tel: +1 212 378
8040
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1 Nature, June 30,
2022. Preparation and characterization analysis of biofuel
derived through seed extracts of Ricinus communis (castor oil
plant). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14403-7
2 Journal of the Chilean Chemical Society, January 2022. A Review of Biodiesel Production
from non-edible raw materials.
https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-97072022000105433&script=sci_arttext
3 Agriculture journal, Feb 2,
2022. The Eco-Efficiency of Castor Supply Chain: A Greek
Case Study. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/2/206/htm
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SOURCE Casterra Ag Ltd.