A Petrobras (PETR4) will start tests with customers in January with diesel co-processed with vegetable oils produced at the Presidente Getúlio Vargas Refinery (Repar), in Paraná, while awaiting advances in Brazilian regulation that allow the insertion of its new product with renewable content in the market, said the director the company’s refining area to Reuters.
Lasting about six months, the tests will have the objective of evaluating the quality and performance of the product, and will count on the participation of a distributor and a bus fleet owner, whose names have not been revealed.
The oil company has already successfully tested the production system of the so-called renewable diesel at Repar, in mid-2020, but the new phase is important to confirm the effectiveness of the product, which can increase the mixture of non-fossil content in the diesel marketed in the country, but is considered a competitor by industry do biodiesel traditional.
In an interview with Reuters, the director of Refining and Gas from the oil company, Rodrigo Costa, pointed out that the renewable diesel initiative aims to accompany developments in the international market, which are moving towards the energy transition, and also add value to the refinery, which is for sale by the state-owned company.
Repar already has the capacity to produce 114,000 tons of renewable fuel per year from the co-processing of refined soy oil.
“(The test) will in fact confirm the effectiveness of this product on the consumer itself. To assess quality, performance…”, said Costa, who proudly showed at the videoconference a miniature barrel filled with the oil company’s transparent renewable diesel.
“It’s a refinery that is following an energy transition… (Such investments) combine an obligation that we have, which is to continue operations in the business, and it still values, makes the asset (for sale) even more attractive.”
As part of the tests, a distributor will blend the new product with diesel sold at gas stations that currently contain a blend of fossil diesel with 10% biodiesel.
After the mixing process, Costa explained that the product that will run in the tank will have 5% renewable fuel from Petrobras and 10% ester-based biodiesel.
“In the end, the client gets 15% renewable content”, he highlighted.
According to Petrobras, the co-processed product has molecules similar to those of mineral diesel, and it can be mixed with diesel without any restrictions.
In the case of traditional biodiesel, quality with a larger blend has been contested, a move that producers consider a coordinated “attack”.
In a recent decision, the government reduced the blend of biofuel to 10% to protect the interests of consumers in terms of price, quality and supply of products.
In February, Petrobras closed the process for the sale of Repar, where the company can now produce diesel with renewable content, alleging that investor proposals fell short of expectations.
The company now plans to resume the process, but has already said that it does not see the binding phase taking place before the 2022 elections.
ambitious plans
The initiative is part of a Petrobras plan for the insertion in the Brazilian market of renewable fuels produced from new technologies.
In its 2022-2026 strategic plan, the company foresees investments of 600 million dollars in new production units, whose disbursement will still depend largely on regulatory advances in the country.
“We see the consumer and the market demanding a smaller carbon footprint, with an increasingly cleaner product, and refining is also transforming in line with this evolution, and biorefining is certainly a transformation lever that we understand as inevitable” , said Costa.
The amount includes adaptations at the Paulínia (Replan) and Cubatão (RPBC) refineries, both in São Paulo, so that they both have the capacity to produce a total of 505,000 tonnes per year of renewable fuel.
But most of the resources can be used to build a biorefinery with 100% renewable load, with a capacity of 500,000 to 800,000 tons per year and the start of operations is scheduled for 2027, in a location to be defined, said Costa.
To put it into practice, the company is pleading with the government for its renewable diesel to be included in mandates for mandatory mixing with fossil diesel sold at gas stations.
Thus, in addition to being able to issue carbon credits based on percentages of renewable content, the oil company could reduce its carbon footprint, as it would sell fuels that produce less emissions.
“It’s in our plan, but this regulatory contour has to evolve so that these projects actually happen,” added Costa.
Advances in Gas
Costa also commented on advances in the natural gas sector, considered an important fuel for the energy transition in Brazil.
At the end of the first half of the year, the company plans to start operations at the Natural Gas Processing Unit (UPGN) at Polo GasLub (formerly Comperj) in Itaboraí (RJ), with a project that also includes the Route 3 gas pipeline that will bring the input. of the pre-salt.
“This will definitely be one of the company’s biggest milestones in 2022,” he said.
The project, which is already being commissioned, foresees the capacity to transport and process 21 million cubic meters of pre-salt gas daily.
Source From: Moneytimes
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