Brazil may be the greatest consumer of biodiesel worldwide in 2011

The country may end the year with a demand of 2.8 billion liters in the internal market

Brazil may end the year as the greatest consumer market of biodiesel fuel, with a demand of around 2.8 billion liters. Germany will be in the second position with 2.6 billion.

The estimate was achieved today (10/26) in the morning by the Chairman of the Association of Biodiesel Producers of Brazil (APROBIO), Erasmo Battistella, when talking at the International Conference of Biodiesel 2011, in São Paulo.

Both countries compete month by month for the leadership in the consumption of renewable fuel. Until mid 2011 both registered 1.2 bi million liters. The reduction of the economic activity in the entire Europe took Germany to reduce the consumption to 200 million liters in the period.

As for production, the Brazilian company may exceed 2.6 billion liters in December, according to predictions of APROBIO. The National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) registered, until September, an increase of 9% in the same period of 2010, with 1.7 billion liters.

Last year, the national production saved US$ 1.4 billion in importations of mineral diesel, when Brazil paid US$ 5 billion in the purchase of 9 billion liters.

More than contributing with the reduction of the deficit in the trade balance, APROBIO defends the adoption of a Regulatory Mark, which defines clear rules for all productive chain the next years, in order to structure the market of fuel in the country.

"We do not want to increase the mixture of biodiesel now - said Battistella -, but count on the Government's initiative to define when and how this will happen so that all productive chain is prepared".

Data of the National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB), of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and Renewable Resources, indicate that only 47% capacity installed is used in the Brazilian industrial park. The chairman of APROBIO stated that with capacity to produce more than 6 billion liters, the sector intends to gain the external market as well.

"Besides", he said, "We want to continue to invest in technology and innovation, but including families of small farmers in the Program (PNPB). The production of biodiesel generates 1.3 million of direct and indirect jobs today, and it may reach 4.7 million in 2020.

Today, there are 103 thousand families of small farmers providing energetic matrix for the industry and, until the year of 2020, there may be more than 500 thousand families. "Everything will depend on the market growth that will result in its consolidation", concluded Battistella.

Brazil mixes 5% of biodiesel in fossil mineral diesel today. In Argentina, this index is 10%, and it may reach 20% in 2020, as in Europe. The Brazilian productive sector tries to reach 10% in 2014 and 20% in 2020, but there is no legal prediction for that.

Fewer deaths - in the city of São Paulo, the City Hall approved law which predicted the mixture two years earlier, in 2018. A bill project has passed through the House of Representatives in Brasília, proposing to extend the measurement to all national territory.

A study of Fundação Getúlio Vargas indicates that biodiesel fuel emits 57% less pollutant gases than fossil diesel, and this contributes to the reduction of the number of hospitalizations due to respiratory tract diseases and the index of mortality for the same reason.

According to survey, about 13 thousand hospitalizations and 1.8 thousand deaths are avoided per year, with 5% mixture in fuel. With the mixture at 10% around 34.5 thousand hospitalizations and 4.9 thousand deaths are avoided. With 20%, it would be less 77.6 thousand hospitalizations and 11 thousand deaths.

The country has 63 industries of biodiesel today. From 2005 to 2010, the sector invested R$ 4 billion in technology and training. In the period, 1.3 million jobs were created in all productive chain, from the crop to the supply station.