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ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: New Evidence in Favour of Biodiesel

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 1 2004 (IPS) - The results of a trial in which two cars drove 100,000 kms on a fuel containing 30 percent biodiesel have provided the latest arguments in favour of the alternative fuel in Brazil.

The trial results reported Tuesday in Brasilia showed that cars maintain a normal level of performance using B30 – a blend consisting of 30 percent biodiesel and 70 percent petroleum-based diesel fuel, while significantly reducing pollution.

The validation study, carried out by the University of Sao Paulo Laboratory for the Development of Clean Technologies (LADETEL) in association with Peugeot Citroen, began in September 2003.

The French car-maker lent two vehicles free of charge for the biodiesel trial (a 206 and a Xsara Picasso), and provided logistical support.

The researchers found that exhaust emissions and greenhouse gases (which cause global warming) were reduced 16 percent on average, said the head of LADETEL, Miguel Dabdoub.

Using B30, the cars’ performance was similar to that of vehicles run on traditional fuels, and they consumed just one percent more fuel.

The biodiesel used in the trial was produced with soybean oil, of which Brazil is one of the world’s leading producers. But research is also being carried out in the country utilising a wide range of other vegetable oils, like castor, palm, sunflower, peanut and cottonseed oil.

Projects developing biodiesel from different kinds of oils are currently being conducted in 21 of Brazil’s 27 states. Some of the initiatives recycle used vegetable oil from restaurants and the grease extracted from sewers. Many native fruits, especially from the Amazon jungle, also provide raw materials.

Biodiesel is currently more expensive than petroleum-based diesel, but the higher cost is compensated by the environmental benefits, Dabdoub argued.

In addition, he said, large-scale production and the possibility of taking advantage of local sources and inputs will further reduce the cost.

Brazil can also draw on the experience of its 30-year-old fuel alcohol programme, which was launched after the 1973 oil crisis.

Fuel alcohol or ethanol produced with sugar cane has replaced a large part of the petrol consumed in this country of 178 million. Nearly 20 percent of the cars in Brazil run exclusively on ethanol.

In addition, all of the petrol consumed in the country consists of 20 to 25 percent fuel alcohol, which saves on oil imports and reduces air pollution and smog.

Brazil produces around 16 billion litres of ethanol – half of the total global production – of which 14.5 billion litres are consumed domestically. Exports are expected to rise fourfold by the end of next year.

In November, the leftist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva plans to authorise sales of B2, a diesel blend containing an additive of two percent biodiesel, to be increased to five percent within the short-term.

Minister of Science and Technology Eduardo Campos said the B2 biodiesel programme will differ significantly from the government’s ethanol (Proalcohol) programme.

He said the new initiative will be carried out with a “strategic vision” that will seek to avoid problems that Proalcohol has run into, while generating “social inclusion”, including employment in rural areas.

Proalcohol emerged in response to an emergency: the sudden skyrocketing of international oil prices. Brazil imports over 80 percent of the petroleum and by-products consumed domestically.

Proalcohol required heavy government subsidies, and the expansion of sugar cane cultivation caused serious environmental and social problems in the countryside.

In addition, insufficient production in the early 1990s led to shortages and a lack of confidence in the new fuel, with demand for cars running exclusively on fuel alcohol dropping practically to zero.

But the manufacturing of “dual fuel” cars, which can run on either petrol or ethanol, or a blend of the two in any proportion, is swiftly restoring the credibility of the government’s Proalcohol programme.

The B2 fuel that the government will authorise in November will require an additional 150,000 hectares of oilseeds, which will generate a source of income for 30,000 families of small farmers, said Minister of Agrarian Development Miguel Rossetto.

Biodiesel is leading to the promotion of the cultivation of castor beans and other crops in semiarid lands in the northeast, Brazil’s poorest region.

Projects involving family farms in small rural communities are spreading in the region, opening up possibilities of reducing poverty and curbing the rural exodus to urban slums.

The Brazilian Company of Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA), a government network of 40 research centres, has carried out studies to help promote the expansion of castor bean cultivation.

Biodiesel based on castor oil will not only serve as fuel, but will also be used to generate electricity in isolated rural communities, at least in the northeastern state of Ceará.