A Portuguese consortium is preparing to build the largest biodiesel plant in the country, which will operate with 90% of its raw material – mainly soybean and sunflower – from Brazil, Angola and Mozambique.

The refinery should start operating in 2010 and has an annual capacity of 250k tons, according to a shareholder. The rest of the raw material will come from Portugal, and can be soybean, rapeseed and palm.

Operation

The consortium, known as GreenCyber is owned by Hagen construction, of individual investors and the bank EFISA.

The refinery will be built at the port of Sines, south of Portugal, where the biodiesel can be exported and with easy access to roads and railways that connect the country to Spain.

The refinery will try to take advantage of the government’s objective to reduce dependence on oil, in addition to reach the target of a mixture of 10% in diesel by 2010, or 600k tons per year.

Extension

Acording to the investor Pedro Sampaio Nunes, the refinery could easily expand the capacity.  “Our facility allows us to easily triple our capacity, which I believe will happen in the next 10 years,” he said.

Portugal currently has four refineries to produce biodiesel, producing a total of 500k tons per year.

Oxfam, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to combating poverty in the world, believes the Brazilian ethanol is the most favorable biofuel in the world in terms of emissions of polluting gases and cost.

The report says that the replacement of traditional fuels by biofuels has led more than 30 million people to poverty and are not helping to combat climate change.

According to the document, the so-called “green policies” of developed countries are contributing to the increase in prices of food – which reaches more poor people.

The text cites as the World Bank, which estimates that the price of food rose 83% in the last three years.

The author of the report, Robert Bailey, criticized the subsidies and tax incentives “generous” granted by rich countries to support its own production of biofuel, including targets and rapidly increasing taxes on imports, which “has been used to protect interests of its farmers “.

“Rich countries spend up to $ 15 billion last year to support its own biofuels at the same time as they prevent the entry of Brazilian ethanol, which is cheaper and is much less harmful to global food security and the environment , “He said.

“This is the same amount that Oxfam says it is necessary to help the poor cope with the crisis of food.”

The report by Oxfam says: “While the production of Brazilian ethanol is far from perfect and present various social problems and environmental sustainability, this is the most favorable biofuel in the world in terms of cost and balance of greenhouse gases”.

The document includes a comparison with the biofuel from corn produced in the United States, saying that their production is highly dependent on fossil fuels, representing “one of the worst” balance between greenhouse gases and use of energy.

The report asks the European Union (EU) to cancel the goal of ensuring that 10% of transport on the block to use biofuels by 2020. Oxfam estimates that the EU target can increase carbon emissions 70 times by 2020 because of the change in the use of land.

There is expectation that another report – the expected “Gallagher report,” a reference to Ed Gallagher, an academic at the head of the Agency for Renewable Fuels of Great Britain – to be released later this week, leading to a review of the goals of Great Britain – Britain and the European Union on the use of fuels derived from plants.

The British government introduced a percentage of 2.5% of biofuels for transport in April last.

Oxfam calls for caution

For developing countries, Oxfam recommends caution in the conduct of its programs to produce biofuels, because although they are “an alternative source of sustainable energy for the poor in marginalised areas, the potential economic costs, social and environmental can be high” .

These countries should plan its programs for long-term, avoiding ambitious targets and analyse the impact of biofuels in society.
Oxfam also provides recommendations for companies and investors. The NGO in its report suggests that they should make sure that none of biofuel project takes place without first obtaining the consent of local communities, and should promote access to energy in remote areas.

Alcohol sales in the home market by the end of May (adding up anhydrous and hydrated) recorded an increase of 31.6% over the same period in 2007. In the case of hydrated ethanol, growth was 43.6%. Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, technical director of Unica, said that the product exporting in the months of April and May, totaled about 600 million litres, exceeding 59% in the volume board in the same period of last year’s harvest.

After 20 years of being behind US in soy export Brazil with honors surpass US becoming the #1 exporter of Soy in the world in 2007, and also the #1 exporter of coffee, orange juice and beef.

Since the president Lula released the law that says Brazil has to mix 5% of Biodiesel in regular Diesel by the end of 2012 many small farmers from northeast are harvesting Castor Oil and Jatropha to sell for Biodiesel refineries.

The incentives for planting for Biodiesel production are enormous, some refinery are buying the harvest of 5 years in advance and there’s a chance of this small cooperatives of farmers to get some money out of the Kyoto’s Protocol too.

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing Greenhouse gases that cause climate change. It was agreed on 11 December 1997 at the 3rd Conference of the Parties to the treaty when they met in Kyoto, and entered into force on 16 February 2005.

That means Brazil no longer needs to import energy from other country to supply its necessity. On the other hand Brazil is becoming a Global Exporter since its production is large.

Brazilian drivers are used to being able to use whichever fuel they want, currently the drivers has at least 4 types of fuel to choose from » gasoline, diesel, ethanol and natural gas.

Many of the cars produced recently can use two types of fuel at the same type also known as “hybrid vehicles”. In big cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro many drivers are adding natural gas tank to their cars to save money.

Brazil is the World’s leading Country in Bio Fuels! Over 30 years ago in order to find a renewable and greener source of fuel, the Brazilian Government started the “Ethanol Boom” and has been successful ever since; for today, 8 out of 10 cars manufactured in Brazil have the so called “Flex Power” engines. These engines can run both in Alcohol Ethanol as well as with gasoline in any blend

Let us dream about a World free of CO2! Let us take part in this Green Revolution that Brazil has started. It’s no longer a dream… It’s reality!!! Well at least in South America! How about the WHOLE WORLD gone green?
Let us make that happen! mother earth will thank us!

source » http://youtube.com/watch?v=sfVVRFa5KDc

2. Biodiesel can be used alone or mixed in any ratio with petroleum diesel.

3. The use of biodiesel can extend the life of diesel engines because it is more lubricating than petroleum diesel fuel, while fuel consumption, auto ignition, power output, and engine torque are relatively unaffected.

4. Biodiesel is safe to handle and transport because it is as biodegradable as sugar (pure biodiesel degrades 85% to 88% in water within 28 days), 10 times less toxic than table salt (lethal dose is greater than 17.4 g/kg body weight, while for salt (NaCL) it is 1.8 g/Kg), and has a high flashpoint of about 200°C compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which has a flash point of 70°C.

5. Biodiesel is a proven fuel with over 20 years of use in Europe and 30 million successful US road miles.

6. Combustion of biodiesel provides over a 75- 90% reduction in environmental pollution and a 90% reduction in cancer risks.

7. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to meet all environmental and human health requirements for energy sources.

source » http://education.kulichki.net/bp/Biodiesel.htm

Transesterification of a vegetable oil was conducted as early as 1853 by scientists E. Duffy and J. Patrick, many years before the first diesel engine became functional. Rudolf Diesel’s prime model, a single 10 ft (3 m) iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany, on August 10, 1893. In remembrance of this event, August 10 has been declared “International Biodiesel Day”.

Rudolf Diesel demonstrated a Diesel engine running on peanut oil (at the request of the French government) built by the French Otto Company at the World Fair in Paris, France in 1900, where it received the Grand Prix (highest prize). [11]

This engine stood as an example of Diesel’s vision because it was powered by peanut oil – a biofuel, though not biodiesel, since it was not transesterified. He believed that the utilization of biomass fuel was the real future of his engine. In a 1912 speech Diesel said, “the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time.”

During the 1920s, diesel engine manufacturers altered their engines to utilize the lower viscosity of petrodiesel (a fossil fuel), rather than vegetable oil (a biomass fuel). The petroleum industries were able to make inroads in fuel markets because their fuel was much cheaper to produce than the biomass alternatives. The result, for many years, was a near elimination of the biomass fuel production infrastructure. Only recently, have environmental impact concerns and a decreasing price differential made biomass fuels such as biodiesel a growing alternative.

Despite the widespread use of fossil petroleum-derived diesel fuels, interest in vegetable oils as fuels in internal combustion engines is reported in several countries during the 1920′s and 1930′s and later during World War II. Belgium, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and China have been reported to have tested and used vegetable oils as diesel fuels during this time. Some operational problems were reported due to the high viscosity of vegetable oils compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which result in poor atomization of the fuel in the fuel spray and often leads to deposits and coking of the injectors, combustion chamber and valves. Attempts to overcome these problems included heating of the vegetable oil, blending it with petroleum-derived diesel fuel or ethanol, pyrolysis and cracking of the oils.

On August 31, 1937, G. Chavanne of the University of Brussels (Belgium) was granted a patent for a “Procedure for the transformation of vegetable oils for their uses as fuels” (fr. ‘Procédé de Transformation d’Huiles Végétales en Vue de Leur Utilisation comme Carburants’) Belgian Patent 422,877. This patent described the alcoholysis (often referred to as transesterification) of vegetable oils using methanol and ethanol in order to separate the fatty acids from the glycerol by replacing the glycerol by short linear alcohols. This appears to be the first account of the production of what is known as “biodiesel” today.

More recently, in 1977, Brazilian scientist Expedito Parente produced biodiesel using transesterification with ethanol, and again filed a patent for the same process. This process is classified as biodiesel by international norms, conferring a “standardized identity and quality. No other proposed biofuel has been validated by the motor industry.”[12] Currently, Parente’s company Tecbio is working with Boeing and NASA to certify bioquerosene (bio-kerosene), another product produced and patented by the Brazilian scientist.[13]

Research into the use of transesterified sunflower oil, and refining it to diesel fuel standards, was initiated in South Africa in 1979. By 1983, the process for producing fuel-quality, engine-tested biodiesel was completed and published internationally.[14] An Austrian company, Gaskoks, obtained the technology from the South African Agricultural Engineers; the company erected the first biodiesel pilot plant in November 1987, and the first industrial-scale plant in April 1989 (with a capacity of 30,000 tons of rapeseed per annum).

Throughout the 1990s, plants were opened in many European countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden. France launched local production of biodiesel fuel (referred to as diester) from rapeseed oil, which is mixed into regular diesel fuel at a level of 5%, and into the diesel fuel used by some captive fleets (e.g. public transportation) at a level of 30%. Renault, Peugeot and other manufacturers have certified truck engines for use with up to that level of partial biodiesel; experiments with 50% biodiesel are underway. During the same period, nations in other parts of the world also saw local production of biodiesel starting up: by 1998, the Austrian Biofuels Institute had identified 21 countries with commercial biodiesel projects. 100% Biodiesel is now available at many normal service stations across Europe.

In September 2005 Minnesota became the first U.S. state to mandate that all diesel fuel sold in the state contain part biodiesel, requiring a content of at least 2% biodiesel.[15]

eventual B5 mandate—approaching, oilseed growers, producers and project developers are keen on ramping up, but a bit overwhelmed by the government’s aggressive target.

By Elizabeth Johnson

In March 24, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva inaugurated the first large-scale biodiesel plant in Brazil. The plant, located in Cássia, in the state of Minas Gerais, has a capacity to produce 12 million liters (3.17 million gallons) of biodiesel per year and will be the first of many, if the President’s biodiesel program is a success. At the event, President Lula said he believes Brazil has the potential to become one of the world’s largest biodiesel producers. “We have everything necessary to produce biodiesel, and we hope that someday we will be able to supply the world,” said Lula, who had promised earlier that Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras will play a key role in the sale and distribution of the renewable fuel.

“Our biodiesel program needs to have a national dimension to become a permanent source of fuel for Brazil. It is our responsibility to guarantee that all Brazilians who want to use biodiesel to fuel their cars will have the right to do so,” he added.

With world oil prices hovering around US$60 per barrel and growing concerns over global warming, countries are allocating more resources to develop technologies for renewable, cleaner burning fuels. Brazil, long the world leader in sugarcane-based ethanol production, launched its Pro-Alcohol Program under a military dictatorship in the late 1970s to reduce its dependence on oil imports. The program strengthened the cane industry by creating an alternative demand for its product aside from sugar.
Now the country’s left-leaning administration is moving ahead with a program that will make a blend of biodiesel—made from vegetable oils and ethanol—mandatory in the national fuel supply by 2008, with the expressed purpose of creating sources of income for many small family farmers in the poor, drought-plagued northeastern region of the otherwise fertile agricultural powerhouse. Officials associated with the massive soy crushing industry in the center-south, however, say the project is doomed without the scale of production that only it can provide to meet future output goals, but so far the government has not come up with the necessary tax breaks to make biodiesel production from soybean oil an attractive investment.

An ambitious national plan
The new law (MP 227), passed by Brazil’s Congress in April, will make B2 use—now voluntary—mandatory nationwide in 2008 and raise the mandatory mix to B5 in 2012, which will help reduce the country’s diesel imports, currently at almost 4 billion liters (1.1 billion gallons) annually. Yearly diesel demand is about 40 billion liters (10.57 billion gallons), or 60 percent of the country’s overall fuel consumption.

The B2 mandate, due to come into force in two and a half years, will require 840 million liters (222 million gallons) of biodiesel annually and create jobs for more than 150,000 small farmers, according to Brazil’s Science and Technology Ministry. According to government estimates, B2 will reduce the nation’s total fuel imports by 33 percent and will save the country $450 million reals (US$195 million). By 2013, the B5 mandate will require 2.4 billion liters (634 million gallons) of biodiesel per year, according to estimates from Brazil’s main vegetable oils industry association. In an effort to meet this growing demand, several large-scale plants are finally beginning to appear, like the one inaugurated by President Lula in March.

SoyMinas was the first company to begin producing in Brazil with a capacity of 12 million liters (3.2 million gallons) per year. In April, Brazil’s Agropalma opened a $2 million reals (US$ 851,000) factory in Belem, northern Brazil, with capacity to produce 24 million liters (6.4 million gallons) per year of biodiesel from palm oil.

New plants being developed
According to the recently formed Brazilian Biodiesel Industries Association, ABiodiesel, eight new projects are currently in development: Ecologica Mato Grosso Industria and Comercio Ltda. (Ecomat); Ceralit; Adequim; Biolix, AgroDiesel; Fusermann Biodiesel; Petroquimica Capital (Petrocap); and Brasil Ecodiesel. Petrocap, the largest of this group is scheduled to inaugurate a plant in the coming weeks with a capacity to produce 300 million liters (79.3 million gallons) per year. These eight projects, combined with Agropalma and SoyMinas plants now in production, are expected to put out more than 450 million liters (118.9 million gallons) of biodiesel annually by 2008.

ABiodiesel’s forecast does not include projects under study by Brazil’s state energy company Petrobras, which expects to start two biodiesel pilot projects at Guamare in Rio Grande do Norte state using castor bean oil. The company’s renewable fuels manager José Carlos Miragaya said that Petrobras is also looking for sites to construct a 45 million-liter- (11.9 million-gallon) per-year biodiesel factory—using various vegetable oil feedstocks—and that it should begin development this year.

Since the beginning of this year, 2% of biodiesel has to be blended into regular diesel in Brazil. The government had originally planned to demand a binding 5% blend in 2013.

The government could make a 3% biodiesel blend binding in July of this year and may require a 4% blend next year.

With a 3% blend, Brazil would consume 1,260 billion liters of biodiesel a year, up from 840 million now, Lobao is quoted as saying.

The minister rejected concerns that there could be biodiesel supply problems in Brazil. The country currently already has a 2.5-billion-liter biodiesel production capacity, he said.

Much of Brazil’s biodiesel output capacity lies idle, however, due to high prices of raw materials, such as soy oil.