Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Edible Oil Waste to Fuel Buses

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 18 2008 (IPS) - Biodiesel distilled from edible oil waste from restaurants and households will fuel 18 buses in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, whose transportation system is an international model and award winner. The project of the municipal agency Urbanization of Curitiba (URBS) will consume 2,000 liters a day of oil used for frying to power 12 vehicles initially, to begin running in October on the Green Line, which crosses 10 neighborhoods in an exclusive lane for articulated buses. The city produces 800,000 liters per month of waste edible oil.

The edible alternative B100 (100 percent biodiesel) generates “pollution similar to mineral gasoline, but will have environmental benefits because it will re-use the oil that would have been thrown in the garbage,” URBS president Paulo Afonso Schmidt told Tierramérica.

Depending on the project's results, the experience could be extended to more bus lines, he said.