ENERGY-BRAZIL: Innovations to Overcome the Shortcomings of Biodiesel

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 22 2004 (IPS) - A frenzy of research, innovations and projects to develop biodiesel in Brazil has been dampened by the need for subsidies to make production of the new environmentally friendly fuel economically feasible.

An estimated 260 million dollars in subsidies will be needed annually to implement the programme that will authorise sales of B2, a diesel blend containing an additive of two percent biodiesel, starting next year, according to a study by the Brazilian presidency’s strategic affairs office.

The problem is that vegetable oils, which are converted into biodiesel by means of a chemical reaction with methanol or ethanol, are actually more expensive than diesel fuel, which means the initiative is not cost-effective.

Nevertheless, in Europe large amounts of biodiesel are produced using different kind of vegetable oils and methanol in a process known as "transesterification". The aim is to reduce air pollution in cities by subsidising the production of a cleaner, renewable fuel, experts point out.

Researcher Carlos Khalil, with the Research and Development Centre (CENPES) at Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company, believes he has come up with a solution, based on the development of a technique for producing the fuel directly from oilseeds.

The innovative new technique bypasses the industrial stage of extracting and refining vegetable oil, thus making production of biodiesel economically viable, Khalil explained to IPS.

The technique, which has been successfully tested in laboratories, consists of grinding the oilseeds with a chemical solvent and using a filter to separate out the solids to obtain a highly pure biodiesel, he explained.

Using vegetable oil as a raw material also includes the cost of purification, since fuel containing impurities hurts motors, he pointed out.

The processes and equipment needed to produce biodiesel on an industrial scale are currently being developed in the northeastern state of Río Grande do Norte, where Petrobras is helping to finance field research, including the planting of castorbeans for the production of biodiesel.

Khalil is mainly focusing on castor-oil, even though the new technique has also come up with good results using soybeans, peanuts and sunflowers. Castorbeans are a "hardy crop" and contain up to 54 percent oil, compared to 18 percent in the case of soybeans, he noted.

In addition, castorbeans fit the biodiesel programme’s social objectives. The government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is promoting the planting of castorbeans in projects involving family farms in small rural communities on semiarid land in the northeast, Brazil’s poorest region, with the aim of curbing poverty and the rural exodus to urban slums.

If it is given the green light, the CENPES technique could help overcome the scepticism of many who argue that the biodiesel programme is not feasible in Brazil because the fuel is too expensive to produce.

But subsidies mean society has to pay the costs, and the new technology does not resolve the need for subsidies, said Osvaldo Stella Martins, a researcher at the National Biomass Reference Centre (CENBIO), which is linked to the University of Sao Paulo.

The new technique "changes nothing", he argued, since vegetable oil continues to fetch a much higher price than diesel fuel – nearly three times higher in the case of castor-oil – and a grower of oilseeds would clearly prefer to sell the crop to companies that produce vegetable oil.

However, as the scale of production of biodiesel grows and petroleum prices hit new record highs, the difference in prices might shrink, since the reason for the high cost of castor-oil has more to do with an international imbalance in supply and demand than steep production costs.

But at this point, the economic dynamics involved will favour large agribusiness interests more than small farmers, Stella Martins commented to IPS. Instead of bringing social benefits, the subsidies could merely help boost the earnings of large soybean producers in the future, he said.

The government must carry out a broader and more careful analysis of the biofuel programme’s objectives, because many of the arguments set forth basically defend the interests of specific sectors, and there are still many unanswered questions, said Stella Martins.

Although castorbeans have a high oil content, production of the crop requires much more labour power per hectare, and given the area planted, its productivity is equal to that of soy, he added.

The search for new techniques to solve the possible shortcomings of biodiesel has spread around the country in the last few years, and projects are currently being carried out in 21 of Brazil’s 27 states.

In Rio de Janeiro, efforts have been made to produce biodiesel using the grease extracted from sewers, and in other cities there are attempts to recycle used vegetable oil from restaurants.

In conjunction with the University of Brasilia, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) – which answers to the Agriculture Ministry – has created equipment allowing small-scale local production of up to 240 litres a day of biodiesel.

The process used is thermal rather than the chemical "transesterification", which means ethanol is not needed.

With the equipment, a plantation, community or farming cooperative can produce its own fuel, to generate electricity, for example, in the case of isolated areas.

The Brazilian government’s decision to promote the use of biodiesel is based on environmental and social concerns, as well as the aim of reducing fuel imports.

In September, the results of a year-long trial carried out by the University of Sao Paulo Laboratory for the Development of Clean Technologies (LADETEL) in association with the French car-maker Peugeot Citroen found that cars maintained a normal level of performance using B30 – a blend consisting of 30 percent biodiesel and 70 percent petroleum-based diesel fuel.

The researchers also found that exhaust emissions and greenhouse gases that cause global warming were reduced 16 percent on average.

The biodiesel used in the trial was made with soybean oil, of which Brazil is one of the world’s leading producers.

The government will formally authorise sales of the B2 diesel blend containing an additive of two percent biodiesel before the end of the month, but the additive will be optional.

To make the additive obligatory, the country would need to produce 740 million litres of biodiesel a year – a volume that will not be reached until 2007, said secretary of oil, gas and renewable fuels, Maria das Graças Foster.

Production will gradually grow, in order to meet the goal of expanding the biodiesel additive from two to five percent by 2010.

For its biodiesel project, Brazil is drawing on the experience of its successful 30-year-old fuel alcohol programme.

Fuel alcohol or ethanol produced from sugar cane has replaced a large part of the petrol consumed in this country of 178 million, and nearly 20 percent of cars run exclusively on ethanol, while 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.