Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply - Embrapa

until the 17th year, in a productive life of approximately 25 years. Productivity
is still on the rise in those plantations and the agronomic potential is up to 40
tons of fruit clusters per hectare with a 22% oil yield.
The region depends heavily on diesel oil for stationary power generators
and river craft. The sole company registered to produce biodiesel is called
Agropalma, a large palm oil producer that has installed an esterification unit
and uses fatty acids obtained in the oil refining process. The unit's production
capacity is 8,100 tons of biodiesel per year, with ethanol as reagent. Another
plant will be built in the State of Tocantins with a production capacity of 40million
liters/year.
The region's current consumption is more than 3-million tons of diesel p.a.
and, since the current installed capacity meets slightly more than 10% of the
biodiesel volume currently required, it is very unlikely that the region will achieve
self-sufficiency by 2008. Another challenge is decentralizing biodiesel production
using the cracking process to supply remote communities directly; these
communities would produce the raw material and transform it into biodiesel.
The long-term prospects of using African palm oil as raw material to
meet the regional and even national demand for biodiesel are very good.
Nevertheless, there are technological problems to be solved as regards the
use of palm oils as raw material. Furthermore, the agronomic cycle of palms
is rather long and both the economic results and the research need more
time to achieve maturity.
Northeast Region
The Northeast Region accounts for 15% of the diesel oil consumed in
Brazil. The first biodiesel plants installed in the country are located in the
Northeast Region, namely, Nutec in Fortaleza and Brasil Biodiesel in Teresina,
both experimental units with daily biodiesel production capacity of 800 and
2,000 liters, respectively. Brasil Biodiesel has another commercial plant in
Floriano, in the State of Piauí.
Because of the social slant given to the National Program for the
Production and Use of Biodiesel from the very beginning, the Program's main
focus in the Northeast Region has been on biodiesel from castor beans. The
crop is fully adaptable to semi-arid areas and is an excellent alternative for
family farming. Because of its social importance and agronomic adaptability
it has been appointed as the crop of choice for the initial phase of the program.
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