Advanced BioFuels USA

by Millena Brazil (epbr) Initiative will allow investments with interest rates of 1% per year; promotion of biofuels was articulated by the Fuel of the Future program — The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) made funding available for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and green diesel projects through the Climate Fund. The initiative is carried out by the Fuel of the Future program of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME).

Brazil still does not have a supply of these fuels manufactured in a biorefinery concept — SAF, green diesel and other bioproducts are produced in the same process — and is seeking a legal framework to attract investments.

As investments in biorefineries are destined to AFS and green diesel together, the program will allow equal rules for both biofuels. Another benefit to investors will be the lower interest rates of 1% per annum.

The action is in line with one of the premises approved by the ProBioQAV subcommittee of the Fuel of the Future, which provides for “intergovernmental articulation to structure lines of financing for research and projects for the production, commercialization and use of SAF, with the objective of helping to structure of the market”, published the General Coordinator of Biodiesel and Other Biofuels of the MME, Renato Dutra, on social networks.

The subsidy is part of the Climate Fund’s renewable energy subprogram, which provides financial support for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction actions and adaptation to climate change.

The fund is one of the instruments of the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC), linked to the Ministry of the Environment (MMA).

According to the BNDES, the following can be financed:

• Technological development of solar, wind, hydraulic, biomass, hydrotreated vegetable oils, urban solid waste and ocean energy or for the production and use of green hydrogen , and of the production chain for the dissemination of the use of solar energy and ocean energy , including energy storage;
• Projects for the generation of electricity or energy conversion from the use of biomass, including the production and use of biogas or hydrotreated vegetable oils for energy purposes, and urban solid waste;
• Support for electricity generation projects from renewable sources in distributed generation or self-production of energy, up to 5MW;
• Projects involving solar thermal energy or the production or use of green hydrogen, including initiatives related to the fuel cell ;
• Projects of renewable energy storage systems from intermittent sources in batteries;
• Technological development and/or investment projects to expand production capacity related to aviation biokerosene, green diesel, biomethane, second-generation ethanol, sustainable marine fuels, synthetic fuels derived from solid waste and electrofuels;
• Investment projects in carbon capture and storage associated with the production of sustainable fuels with low carbon intensity.

SAF in the Fuel of the Future

In April, the MME presented the first public policy draft for the insertion of the SAF in the Brazilian production chain.

The text established that air operators should reduce CO2 emissions by 1%, at least, from 2027, on domestic flights and using a mixture of SAF and fossil kerosene.  READ MORE