BRAZIL: BRAZIL EXPLORES NEW COST EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVE FUEL

Record ID: 359525

  • Title: BRAZIL: BRAZIL EXPLORES NEW COST EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVE FUEL
  • Date: 8th January 2004
  • Summary: (L!3) RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (RECENT) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF CITY GV CHRIST STATUE SLV BIODIESEL TRUCK ON STREET VARIOUS OF BIODIESEL WORKER ARRIVING AT FAST FOOD RESTAURANT TO COLLECT USED OIL VARIOUS OF FRENCH FRIES MAN CARRYING USED OIL TO BE TAKEN TO PROCESSING PLANT RESEARCHER TESTING OIL SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) RESEARCHER FOR RIO DE JANEIRO FEDERAL UNIVERSIT
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA8U84J1Q3IU3SK6RW48GWP5VRE
  • Story Text: Brazil explores new, cost-efficient alternative fuel.
    Brazilian motorists often have five choices when tanking up: two kinds of unleaded gas, diesel, natural gas and ethanol made from sugarcane. Soon they might have another; diesel fuel made from vegetable oils, known as biodiesel.
    "Biodiesel is a fuel derived from new or used vegetable oils or animal oils, that are capable of being substituted for diesel oil that can be used without having to change the engine structure of the vehicles," explained Luciano Oliveira, a researcher for Rio de Janeiro Federal University, where Biodiesel is being developed.
    According to researchers, the fuel contains no petroleum products. It's a clean-burning alternative fuel that performs like diesel but is made from the oil extracted from soy, rapeseed, palm plants, canola seeds and other farm products.
    "It's a way of substituting fossil combustible fuel with this reduce pollution, create jobs and make the Brazilian economy more dynamic, because Brazil is a huge importer of diesel," added Oliveira.
    In Brazil, Biodiesel is in its infancy but it plays to the strengths of the largely underdeveloped country, Latin America's largest. Brazil's favoured oil source is soy; it's the world's second biggest producer of soy after the United States.
    The refining process for biodiesel - basically removing the glycerine to make the vegetable oil less gummy - takes a lot of alcohol. That's no problem for Brazil, the world's largest sugarcane grower. More than half the crop already is processed into ethanol to fuel automobiles.
    "We want to make Rio de Janeiro into a refinery and distribution center for biodiesel." said Fernando Peregrino, the State Secretary of Technology and Science. "
    This will make Brazil an example of how we can conserve our environment, human life and still be economically feasible."
    Scientists across Brazil are extracting oil from peanuts, palms, soy and other plants to make and test biodiesel. In a pilot program in Rio de Janeiro, six city garbage trucks are running on a mix of soy oil and used vegetable oil donated by McDonald's. Researchers jokingly call the fuel McDiesel.
    Mileage from biodiesel fuel is comparable with conventional diesel, proponents say. Like conventional diesel, engine performance tends to be sluggish compared with gasoline and better in warm temperatures than cold.
    Those aren't big drawbacks in Brazil, a nation with low per-capita income that generally shuns big gas-guzzlers in favor of small, fuel-efficient cars.
    The biggest potential market is truckers and long-distance bus companies. They consume more than 90 percent of the diesel fuel sold in Brazil and 42 percent of petroleum fuel, according to government statistics. Eleven federal ministries are working on regulations that would include incentives to spur consumption of biodiesel, expected by year's end.
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