By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian government has sanctioned a law which increases the amount of biodiesel in the diesel oil mixture, from seven percent to eight percent. Since 2008 Brazil has required the use of the renewable raw material into the mixture of diesel oil.
“We all gain from this, family agriculture, commercial agriculture, biodiesel producers, the Brazilian consumer and the environment,” said Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff last week, when signing the new law. “I hope that in this combination we will also have cheaper prices for the fuel,” she added.
In 2014 a new order increased the mixture of biodiesel from the existing five percent to six percent (B6) starting July 1st and from six percent to seven percent (B7) starting November 1st. Now until 2019 the Brazilian Congress has authorized the mixture to increase to ten percent of biodiesel.
“The National Program for Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB) is an example of economic, social and environmental sustainability, since it adds value to agricultural products, reduces the need for diesel imports, promotes productive inclusion and contributes to the energy transition process to renewable sources,” said the president of the of the Brazilian Union of Biodiesel and Biokerosene (Ubrabio) Council, Juan Diego Ferres on the entity’s website.
Erasmo Batistella, president of the Biodiesel Producers Association of Brazil (APROBIO), says he hopes the new law will encourage more family farms to produce soybean, the main raw material used for the production of biodiesel.
“We want to recover the growth of family farmers (in biodiesel production) through the Social Fuel Seal,” Batistella told government news sources. “This is the only program in the world that has set aside part of the supply of raw materials to family agriculture.”
According to ANP (National Petroleum Agency) last year 1,917,000 square meters of biodiesel were produced in Brazil. In January fifty producing plants were authorized to operate commercially, with thirty-nine of those plants holding the Social Fuel Seal.