Oleochem Analytics – The Collegiate Board of Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) on May 13 approved a resolution setting the specifications of renewable diesel to be sold in the country.
The publication of the resolution comes after the ANP analyzed the impact of selling renewable diesel in the Brazilian market.
The approved regulation is in line with the national biofuels policy, known as RenovaBio.
Although there is still no national production, the publication allows Brazil to be part of the list of international producers of advanced fuels, such as the USA, Italy, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Spain, China and France, the ANP said.
Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras completed refinery tests on its patented renewable diesel production technology last year.
Petrobras said it successfully converted 2m liters, or about 12,580 bbls of soybean oil into renewable diesel at its Repar refinery in Parana state. The final product met all technical requirements, Petrobras said.
Petrobras has argued that renewable diesel should be classified alongside biodiesel to meet the country’s 13% blending mandate. The company added that renewable diesel does not use glycerine in its production process and improves the performance of diesel motors, unlike conventional biodiesel.
But the biodiesel industry, which has invested heavily over the past decade in capacity to meet the mandate, has argued that renewable diesel should not be classified as biodiesel and included in the nationally mandated blend volume.
In Brazil, the regulation of renewable diesel may also make feasible the production and commercialization of bio-jet fuel, already regulated by ANP Resolution No. 778, of 2019, since the production of biofuels generates different bioproducts in the same process.
The publication of the specification is the first step in the introduction of renewable diesel in Brazil.
