IPS-English BRAZIL: Developing ”Clean” Petrochemical Products
 
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:19:35 -0800

 
Mario Osava* - Tierramérica

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 19   (IPS)  - Glycerine, a by-product of biodiesel,
is currently an environmental and economic problem for companies involved
in the production of plant-based fuel in Brazil and other parts of
the world. It can't be dumped, because it would harm the environment,
and storing it racks up additional costs.

But what has been a problem is now driving the search to develop
new industrial uses for this multi-purpose raw material. Petrochemistry
is its principal destination. 

”Green propane” already exists -- the raw material of many plastic
products -- and its patent belongs to a partnership between the public
enterprise Nova Petroquimica and the Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro (UFRJ), which is opening the way for replacing the petroleum
derivatives used in the plastics industry.

”We have glycerine available in sufficient quantities to develop
this sustainable path,” Pedro Bóscolo, technology manager of the company,
told Tierramérica.

Brazil adopted an obligatory mixture of two percent biodiesel in
vehicles that run on diesel fuel, B2. This produces a by-product of
105,000 tonnes of glycerine per year, according to Bóscolo.

That will be multiplied by a factor of 2.5 in 2013, when the country's
standard will be B5, with a five percent biodiesel mix, which will
allow large-scale industrialisation that is also favoured by a lower
price of the raw material.

Brazil consumes 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes annually of glycerol, the
technical name for pure glycerine, which is also a by-product of the
soap industry. It is used in the production of cosmetics, foods, dyes
and pharmaceuticals.

For now, glycerine -- nearly 10 percent of the biodiesel produced
-- is ”an environmental liability” because in rivers it causes the
proliferation of plants and bacteria that use up oxygen, killing fish,
Claudio Mota, professor at the UFRJ Chemistry Institute, which coordinates
green propane research, told Tierramérica.

Burning it is also harmful because it emits acrolein, a carcinogen,
and the direct use as fuel could damage equipment, given that the
glycerine comes out of the process with impurities, said the researcher.
The biodiesel companies are storing it in hopes that a solution can
be found, but there have already been reports of glycerine spills
into rivers.

This situation pushed UFRJ and Nova Petroquimica to seek ways to
make use of the product. Propane was chosen because it is the raw
material for many industries in this country, produced from a waste
product, ”and which does not require the cultivation of additional
land in competition with food,” said Bóscolo.

With the product patented, its current phase is to develop a pilot
plant at UFRJ, followed by a slightly larger factory at Nova Petroquimica,
before launching large-scale production in 2013.

There is no patent for green propane in Europe, which has long produced
more biodiesel than Brazil, and therefore has much more glycerine
available.

Glycerine had a limited market because it was seen has a costly product,
Marcelo Parente, director of the Brazilian Bio-Energy Enterprise (EBB),
told Tierramérica. But the by-products of biodiesel change that scenario.

However, industrialisation requires a complex purification process,
to which the EBB has dedicated itself, having already obtained ”pre-purified”
glycerine that is of great interest to industry because it reduces
costs. 

”It's a step towards bi-distillation” for sectors like petrochemistry,
said Parente, whose father, Expedito Parente, invented biodiesel 30
years ago and developed bio-kerosene, a jet fuel made from vegetable
oils.

And the uses for glycerine continue to expand. In pesticides it improves
efficiency and sprayability, increasing adherence to leaf surface,
Parente said.

A vehicle assembly company wants to use it in the systems to prevent
engines from overheating, substituting it for a petroleum derivative.

With oil costing more than 100 dollars a barrel, renewable replacements
for fossil fuel products are becoming more competitive, said Mota,
although he acknowledged that fossil fuels will maintain their dominant
role for decades to come.

But now it can even be justified to exploit glycerine's energy potential.
One of its oxygenated derivatives can improve the octane level of
gasoline with a mix of one to five percent, and reduce emissions of
toxic carbon monoxide, the researcher said. 
So many products in development are a sign that the errors Brazil
made since 1970, when it adopted sugarcane ethanol as a gasoline substitute,
won't be repeated.

The by-products, which Mota prefers to call ”co-products”, could
be important for consolidating biodiesel and some oilseed crops as
their principal sources.

At the moment, soybeans are predominant in Brazil, despite the low
oil output of that crop. Its advantage is the broad production and
marketing infrastructure already in place, as well as the great importance
of soy bran, which is used as cattle feed.

The obstacles for castor-oil plant are its toxic residues and the
excessive viscosity of its oil, said Mota. Furthermore, there is cultural
resistance to planting it in some areas of the northeast, where the
government is trying to promote this crop among small farmers, said
Parente.

The babaçu, a palm plant abundant in the northeast and in the eastern
Amazon, has the virtue that all of its parts are utilised by the local
population. The socioeconomic effects of it being used for biodiesel
would also be great, as more than 400,000 poor people make their living
by making crafts from its coconuts.

(*Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service
produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development
Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)


*****
+ Tierramérica (http://www.tierramerica.info/index_en.php)
+ UFRJ Chemistry Institute - in Portuguese (http://www.iq.ufrj.br)
+ National Biodiesel Programme - in Portuguese (http://www.biodiésel.gov.br)
+ BRAZIL: Amazon Fruit Gatherers Face Biofuel Dilemma (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38795)
+ BRAZIL: Biofuel Revolution Reaches Airline Industry (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40005)
+ CLIMATE CHANGE: Biofuels Worse Than Fossil Fuels, Studies Find
(http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41119)
+ CLIMATE CHANGE: Brazilian Ethanol Goes It Alone (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41425)


(END/IPS/LA/EN DV NR SC SU/TRASP-LD-SW/MO/TA/08)


 
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