Fueling Brazil's future: the development of an alternative, vegetable-based fuel could enhance this nation's economy while protecting the environment.

AuthorAronow, Louisa

In a spacious building on the campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), huge, glistening stainless-steel tanks begin another busy day of experiments with vegetable oil. Although the pressure gauge on one tank displays the name Kibon, a popular ice cream, the renovated industrial equipment is not creating a food product, To check the temperature gauge for the processor tank, a tall, dark-haired researcher must climb up a few metal steps for an accurate reading. In a small adjoining room, visible through a large window, a student in a lab coat cheeks the chemical composition of oil in test tubes, varying in color from pale yellow to deep brown. Another student is focused on computer simulations of chemical blends.

These days, scientists in Brazil's second largest city are taking used fryer oil, donated by Rio's McDonalds restaurants, and filtering it, mixing it with chemical catalysts, then ultimately transforming the former fryer oil into biodiesel fuel: a golden-colored, clean-burning fuel suitable for diesel-powered vehicles. Biodiesel fuel can also be made front renewable oils such as sunflower, soy, peanut, or the world's most ubiquitous oil source--used fryer oil.

Researchers with the UFRJ's postgraduate engineering program are investigating vegetable based fuel with an eye to the future. Scientists in many universities in Brazil, in conjunction with the government and private industries, are exploring how to move the country to the forefront of alter native fuel. Brazil's climate offers fertile opportunities for a variety of oleaginous, or oil-producing crops, with the potential of boosting the economy at a time when the world community is confronting rising fuel prices and decreasing sources of petroleum.

According to RioBiodiesel, a state program promoting the alternative fuel, biodiesel presents many environmental advantages when compared to petroleum diesel fuel. Biodiesel reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases; it produces no sulfur emissions, which are responsible for acid rain and health problems; and it produces up to 50 percent fewer particulates. Throughout Rio, older municipal buses are a standard form of transportation, and they belch copious amounts of unregulated diesel fumes into the air. World Health Organization statistics as far back as 1995 showed that the city's air had over sixteen times the sulfur dioxide level of Los Angeles, California. Reducing dependence on petroleum fuel is essential not only for Brazil's economy, but air Quality as well.

Biodiesel still has a few problems to be resolved by researchers and producers. In colder weather, 100 percent of biodiesel tends to solidify' like salad dressing in the refrigerator, although cold weather is seldom a problem in Brazil. The fuel filter on an older vehicle using a biodiesel blend of 20 percent or more may need a fuel filter charge after a hundred hours of operation because biodiesel functions as a solvent, cleaning out old carbon sludge deposited in the fuel system by diesel. Biodiesel can also corrode the natural robber hoses and gaskets found in older vehicles. Amazingly, the fuel is not flammable, so it's much safer to store and work with than petroleum fuels.

Luiz Guilherme da Costa Marques, a chemical researcher at UFRJ, is conducting a tour through the biodiesel production area. Fuel here is produced from soy oil and used McDonalds oil, collected in large metal barrels. Precisely measured alcohol (methanol or ethanol) and a minute amount of sodium hydroxide (lye) are carefully blended in a small tank. Guilherme quickly climbs up a few steps to show the inside of one empty thousand-liter reactor, where the oil is mixed with the catalysts in a process called...

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