2023-06-09 16:24:49
In order to have access to electricity, the population of isolated locations in the Brazilian Legal Amazon has to live with the burning of S500 diesel on a daily basis. Currently, 212 locations in the region are not connected to the National Interconnected System (SIN) and are served by thermoelectric plants powered mainly by fossil fuels.
For 15 years, the BBF Group (Brasil BioFuels) has provided a solution for the region: the generation of electricity from biodiesel and biomass from the production of oil palm, also known as oil palm.
The BBF Group currently owns 38 thermoelectric plants in the region, with a total generation capacity of 238 MW. Currently, 25 plants are in operation with a capacity to generate 86.8 MW, serving 140 thousand people. With this, the BBF Group withdraws more than 106.4 million liters of fossil diesel from the Amazon per year and reduces the emission of regarding 250 thousand tons of carbon equivalent in the atmosphere.
“We are a company that operates 100% with B100 biodiesel to replace fossil diesel on a commercial scale in Isolated Systems. There are more than 200 locations in the North region that belong to Isolated Systems, that is, that are not connected to the National Interconnected System of electricity supply. In these communities, there are small power plants to supply electricity, most of which run on S500 diesel”, explains Milton Steagall, CEO of the BBF Group.
According to the executive, the Amazon is “intoxicated” by the burning of diesel used in transport and in the generation of electricity for isolated communities. To get an idea, the S500 diesel, most used for power generation in the region, contains a high sulfur content (500 mg/kg) and a high percentage of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), proven carcinogenic substances. In addition, fuel contributes to the occurrence of acid rain.
“Palm oil biodiesel does not contain sulfur, does not emit carcinogenic substances and avoids carbon emissions. This product proved to be a strategic solution to help clean up the region’s matrix, decarbonize the world’s lungs and ensure security of energy supply,” says Steagall, who has been studying the energy challenges of the Amazon region since the early 2000s.
Sustainable production, employment and income
The production of oil palm in the region also helps in solving other problems faced by the population: the lack of jobs and income, in addition to the occupation of previously deforested areas.
Plant cultivation follows one of the strictest laws in the world, the Oil Palm Agroecological Zoning, defined by the Federal Government in decree of 7,172 May 2010. According to legislation, oil palm can only be cultivated in degraded areas in the region until December 2007. In all, 31 million hectares in Brazil are suitable for cultivating oil palm.
Due to the characteristics of the plant, oil palm cultivation cannot be mechanized. “That’s why we defend that in addition to being a crop that recovers degraded areas of the Amazon, it is also a solution for generating jobs and income in the region. We will only have a fair country and talk regarding preventing deforestation when we can offer jobs for this population. Currently, around 29.6 million people live in the Amazon region, according to the IBGE. It is essential to create employment and income opportunities for this population, as long as the forest is kept standing”, says Steagall.
The BBF Group operates in the Amazon region with six thousand direct jobs and 18 thousand indirect jobs generated. The company has over 75,000 hectares cultivated with oil palm in the states of Pará and Roraima. The expectation is to double the number of jobs generated in the coming years with the planting of an additional 100,000 hectares of oil palm in the region and the inauguration of a biorefinery for the production of Green Diesel (HVO) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) .
About the BBF Group
The BBF Group (Brasil BioFuels), a Brazilian company founded in 2008, is a producer of palm oil, with a cultivated area of over 75,000 hectares and production of around 200,000 tons of oil per year. The company operates in the creation of sustainable solutions for the generation of renewable energy in isolated systems, with thermoelectric plants powered by biofuels produced in the region. Its agricultural activity recovers areas that were degraded until 2007 in the Amazon, following the Oil Palm Agroecological Zoning (ZAE), approved by Decree 7172 of the Federal Government, of May 7, 2010.
The BBF Group has created an integrated business model in which it operates from the beginning to the end of the value chain – from the sustainable cultivation of oil palm, extraction of crude oil, production of biofuels, biotechnology, to the generation of renewable energy – with assets totaling around R$ 2.1 billion and activities generating more than 6 thousand direct jobs in the North region of Brazil. The BBF Group’s operations are located in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima and Pará, comprising 38 thermoelectric plants (25 in operation and 13 in implementation), 3 oil palm crushing units, a soy extruder and an industry of biodiesel.
The company is expanding its offer of biofuels and has established partnerships for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), also called green diesel. The new sustainable fuels will be produced from 2026 in the country’s first Biorefinery, under construction in the Manaus Free Trade Zone.
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