BIOETHANOL AS SUSTAINABLE BUS TRANSPORT FUEL IN BRAZIL AND EUROPE

摘要

S?o Paulo is the first city in South America demonstrating the economical and technical viability ofpublic buses fuelled with ethanol in order to investigate opportunities for a reduction of the pollutant emission inurban transport. These demonstration activities are supported by the European Commission in the framework of theproject BEST (Bioethanol for Sustainable Transport). In order to provide the ground for a future large-scaleimplementation of ethanol buses in Brazil, a cooperation agreement with a large variety of important Brazilian andEuropean stakeholders was signed. Fuel consumption measurements performed during the period November 2008 toSeptember 2009 showed a significantly higher consumption for the ethanol bus as compared with a reference dieselbus. Due to this higher fuel consumption, the ethanol bus shows higher fuel related operation costs by 20-40% incomparison with the reference diesel bus, whereas the technical maintenance costs as reported by the operators of thebuses were approximately equal for both bus types. These results of the monitoring of the ethanol bus demonstrationunderline that it is currently not financially viable for bus operators in Brazil to replace their existing diesel bus fleetby innovative ethanol buses. The large operation costs constitute a significant economic barrier to the introduction ofthe 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 theBrazilian market.