 |
|
|
Using Vegetable Oil to Propel Cars |
|
By Mario Osava*
In their search for a more eco-friendly fuel, Brazilian researchers are exploring the potential of biodiesel, which utilizes inputs like used vegetable oil from fast-food restaurants. The formula would reduce the emission of gases that cause the greenhouse effect.
RIO DE JANEIRO - The oil used in the preparation of the McDonald’s restaurant chain’s fried potatoes is one of the ingredients in a new fuel being developed in Brazil to replace gasoline in cars.
Beginning in February 10 vehicles will be circulating in Rio de Janeiro, running on a fuel that contains five percent vegetable oils in a diesel mixture.
But the local government project’s aim is to boost both the number of people using the new fuel - known as biodiesel - and the proportion of vegetable oils in the mix, to maximize the environmental, economic and social advantages of the new product.
IVIG, the technology research center at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that is leading the research, seeks to create conditions in which engines run on pure biodiesel, in other words, a fuel based solely on grain oils and biomass.
The primary benefit of this alternative is environmental: its carbon dioxide emissions are 78 percent less than that of diesel. Widespread use of the new fuel would contribute to reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming.
Furthermore, biodiesel contains 98 percent less sulfur, implying the decline in another source of contamination coming from fuel combustion.
Using the vegetable oil-based fuel would favor the installation of catalytic converters in diesel-driven cars, an impossibility today due to the excessive emissions of sulfur, Luciano Basto, project coordinator, told Tierramérica.
One strange facet of the project - and another advantage - is that it also takes advantage of used oils. The IVIG research and the 10 first test vehicles utilize inputs provided by the U.S.-based fast-food restaurant chain, McDonald’s.
For the next two years the project will receive a monthly donation of at least 25,000 liters of vegetable oil used in frying potatoes at the 40 McDonald’s restaurants in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area.
Utilizing these oils can contribute to garbage volumes, but the difficulties in collecting this unusual resource have yet to be resolved. So far, it is only feasible in large metropolitan areas and among the major suppliers of used oils, said Basto.
The project agreed by the Federal University, government entities and the state-run petroleum giant Petrobrás aims to achieve the widespread use of biodiesel, beginning in Rio de Janeiro state.
This goal requires much greater volumes of vegetable oils than what restaurants would be able to provide. Consumption of these oils in Brazil reaches 3.5 billion liters a year, while consumption of diesel fuel surpasses 36 billion liters, stated the expert.
Making use of kitchen oil waste would supply just 10 million liters a year, under the current collection system. To make this alternative fuel a reality, agricultural production of oil-producing crops must be expanded. The Rio de Janeiro Agricultural Secretariat has set aside 500 hectares in the northern part of the state for growing maize, sunflower and castor-oil plant.
* Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent.
|
