Petrobras advances in testing marine fuel with renewable content

Petrobras carried out a new performance test on marine fuel (bunker) containing 24% of biodiesel volume. On Monday (11/12), the product was supplied with around 860 thousand liters, at the Rio Grande Terminal (RS), on a ship used on container cabotage routes on the Brazilian coast.

In the test, certified biodiesel derived from animal fat (tallow) was used in the mixture with mineral bunker. In other words, it is obtained from residual raw material, which has a lower carbon intensity. Therefore, the estimated percentage of reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the fuel used in this test is around 19%, compared to the 100% mineral bunker, considering the complete life cycle of the product according to data from the European Union Renewable Energy Directive (EU RED). In the previous test, carried out in June, with biodiesel from soybeans and tallow, the reduction in GHG emissions had been around 17%.

The biodiesel purchased to compose the mixture followed the ISCC EU RED criteria, one of the most traditional certifications on the market, applicable for traceability and calculation of GHG emissions from more sustainable raw materials and bioproducts. After the completion of tests and validation of the bunker with renewable content produced by Petrobras, the expectation is that the market for this type of fuel will develop further.

Petrobras will allocate US$11.5 billion to low-carbon projects over the next five years. According to the director of Logistics, Commercialization and Markets at Petrobras, Claudio Schlosser, “the company works with suppliers to serve the consumer market. The objective is to diversify raw materials and offer society more sustainable products.”