Paper details

Title:

Bioethanol as Sustainable Bus Transport Fuel in Brazil and Europe

Author(s):

Janssen, R., Rutz, D., Hofer, A., Moreira, J., Santos, S., Coelho, S.T., Velazquez, S., Capaccioli, S., Landahl, G., Ericson, J.

Document(s):

Abstract:

São Paulo is the first city in South America demonstrating the economical and technical viability of public buses fuelled with ethanol in order to investigate opportunities for a reduction of the pollutant emission in urban transport. These demonstration activities are supported by the European Commission in the framework of the project BEST (Bioethanol for Sustainable Transport). In order to provide the ground for a future large­scale implementation of ethanol buses in Brazil, a cooperation agreement with a large variety of important Brazilian and European stakeholders was signed. Fuel consumption measurements performed during the period November 2008 to September 2009 showed a significantly higher consumption for the ethanol bus as compared with a reference diesel bus. Due to this higher fuel consumption, the ethanol bus shows higher fuel related operation costs by 20­40% in comparison with the reference diesel bus, whereas the technical maintenance costs as reported by the operators of the buses were approximately equal for both bus types. These results of the monitoring of the ethanol bus demonstration underline that it is currently not financially viable for bus operators in Brazil to replace their existing diesel bus fleet by innovative ethanol buses. The large operation costs constitute a significant economic barrier to the introduction of the ethanol bus technology to the Brazilian market as public buses are operated by private commercial companies. Consequently, political ambition and public support is urgently needed to introduce ethanol bus technology on the Brazilian market.

Keywords:

bioethanol, transport, biofuels

Topic:

Industrial demonstration and market implementation

Subtopic:

Biofuels in the transportation sector

Event:

18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

VP4.3.12

Pages:

1975 - 1981

ISBN-13:

978-88-89407-56-1

ISBN-10:

88-89407-56-5

Paper DOI:

10.5071/18thEUBCE2010-VP4.3.12

Price:

FREE