IT’S a long way from Brighton to Brazil - but one green company has forged closer ties with the South American country after securing a lucrative contract worth up to £500 million.

The deal for Ultra Green, based in Marlborough Place, Brighton, should lead to it doubling in size in the next few months.

The contract is to deliver mobile waste-to-energy technology throughout Brazil.

It is a joint venture with Brazilian energy firm A&G Energia to provide mobile power plants that convert normal household waste into electricity, without releasing harmful emissions.

Ultra Green chief executive David Weaver said: “We take bad things and make good things out of them. Our technology has the advantage of being able to reach remote locations so it is ideal for Brazilian farms.

“We build the plants so they can be transported easily in 40ft containers and then lease them, which helps poorer countries because they do not have to find lots of capital.

“I think we are the only company in the world that does this.”

As a result of the contract, Ultra Green is opening a manufacturing plant in the American state of Indiana, which will eventually employ hundreds of people.

It has also signed a deal to provide floating versions of the waste-to-energy plants, with the first being set up in Manilla Bay in the Philippines.

At the moment Ultra Green employs about 35 people in its Brighton headquarters and has other staff around the world, including India, Dubai, Rio and the US.

Mr Weaver said the company is currently looking around Brighton for larger premises to move into.

He added: “Just to deliver the projects we have got already then we will need another 20 people and we will eventually be looking to build the team up to about 60.”

The mobile waste-to-energy plants are just one part of Ultra Green's range of green technology.

The company's technology can convert landfill gas, which is made up of contaminated methane and 25 times more harmful than CO2, into electricity, heat and biodiesel.

It also works with hydro and geothermal power and a process that cracks plastic back down into oil.