Brazilian Biofuels Program: Opportunities and Challenges

Brazil is a country in which alternatives to oil for powering transportation are most used. Related to suggarcane ethanol (bioethanol) in south-central Brazil 1 unit of fossil energy is used for each 9 units of energy produced. Environmental claims state that a reduction of carbon emissions is also promoted by the usage of bioethanol. For each ton used as fuel, there is a saving of 2.3 tons of CO2 not emitted to the atmosphere, while abolishing SO2 emission. Thus, bioethanol has an excellent chance of becoming a worldwide replacement or complement for gasoline. As oil prices increase, the production of bioethanol in Brazil becomes very competitive, opening up opportunities to technolgical improvement of bioethanol production in the country.

In addition, geopolitical and economic data have reported conditions for Brazil to assume leadership in biodiesel production, which is obtained through transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat. This is mainly due to the  diversity of vegetable species that grow well in the conutry and can be used to obtain biodiesel, such as soybean, sunflower, canola (rapeseed), olive, castor, jathropa and palm in addition to lard and  tallow. Biodiesel is typically produced through a reaction of an oil with alcohol, such as methanol (FAME) or ethanol (FAEE) in the presence of a catalyst, resulting in mono-alkaline esters and glycerine. The latter is removed and can be used in many technological applications.