Luiz Pereira Ramos^1*, Helena M. Wilhelm²

Departamento de Química Aplicada

Instituto de Tecnologia para o Desenvolvimento, LACTEC

P. O. Box 19067

81531.990 Curitiba, PR, Brazil

In recent years, the concept of biodiesel production from renewable lipid sources regained international attention. This tendency led the Brazilian Government to establish a national program (Probiodiesel) whose mission is to evaluate the technical, economical and environmental competitiveness of biodiesel in relation to the commercially available diesel oil. Ever since its creation, the national biodiesel program has been considered strategic for the Brazilian economy because nearly 17% of the national diesel consumption is imported from abroad; in 2002, this corresponded to an annual cost of 1.08 billion US$. Nevertheless, the cost of producing ethyl esters is still beyond the cost of producing diesel oil and efforts are been made to improve biodiesel competitiveness through subsidies and/or tax redemptions. Several research projects have been initiated nationwide to investigate and/or optimize biodiesel production from soybean oil and ethanol derived from sugarcane (ethyl esters), the only two raw materials that are considered available to support the initial activities of the national program. Some of these initiatives have been rather successful in producing ethyl esters under conditions similar to those tradicionally used for methanolysis. However, other raw materials are under evaluation for the same purpose and these include oils from palm trees (babaçu and dendê), mamona tree (Ricinus communis), sunflower (Raphunus sativus L.), peanuts and pinhão-manso tree (Jatropha curcas). Brazil has already developed the world largest and most successful biofuels program using ethanol (Proalcool). Development and inclusion of biodiesel into the Brazilian energy matrix will not only decrease our dependance upon petroleum derivatives but also create new jobs in the countryside, boost new market opportunities for the oil industry, improve the air quality in urban areas and, more importantly, the development of biodiesel will help the Brazilian government to support important actions against poverty.