President Lula to inaugurate biodiesel plant

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This Wednesday (08/20), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will participate in the inaugural ceremony of Petrobras' second commercial biodiesel production plant in Quixadá (CE). The plant is part of Petrobras Biocombustível, Petrobras’ newly created subsidiary which will concentrate the Company’s biofuel production projects. The unit, as is the case of the first plant installed in Candeias (Bahia), is capable of producing 57 million liters of biodiesel per year.

The inauguration of the Quixadá plant boosts Petrobras’ participation in the biodiesel productive chain. With an equal production capacity, Petrobras Biocombustível’s third commercial biodiesel plant is already in its final assembly phase in Montes Claros (Minas Gerais). Together, investments in the three plants add up to R$295 million and generate work and income for 55,000 family farmers hired to supply raw materials.

Quixadá biofuel plant
The Quixadá plant, as is the case of the Candeias unit, has important design differentials. The main ones are its fully automated instrumentation and control systems, its crude vegetable oil processing system, and its great flexibility in the use of different raw materials.

The automation system is formed by 3,700 points that control and monitor 1,200 process variables and the plant’s 250 motors, ensuring the quality of the fuel the unit produces.

The volumes of biodiesel that will be processed and marketed will be monitored in real time, from the moment the truck arrives with the raw materials, going through all production stages, and, finally, to the time the truck leaves transporting the finished product.

This allows the creation of a database containing the history of all operations carried out. The process can be reliably audited at any given moment and the information can be sent, simultaneously, to the company's headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro.

The unit also has redundant systems, i.e., maintenance can be carried out at the plant without compromising operational continuity, ensuring high capacity performance and biodiesel quality.

The plant has a crude vegetable oil processing system that pre-treats the products at the plant, turning them into refined oil.

Another differential of this plant is its great operating autonomy thanks to its large raw material, intermediary, and finished product storage capacity.

At peak construction, 1,048 jobs were generated, 814 of which held by workers from Ceará, of whom 483 were from the Quixadá region.

Driving family farming
The biodiesel plant can run on vegetable (castor seeds, sunflower seeds, soybeans, cotton, etc.) and animal (cattle, swine or chicken fat) raw materials, in addition to on residual oils and fat used originally to fry food.

To obtain the Social Fuel Seal, the company prioritizes the purchase of oleaginous products coming from family farming. Part of the Quixadá supply will be provided by 8,522 farmers who are planting castor and sunflower seeds in 161 municipalities in Ceará. In Rio Grande do Norte, there are 759 farmers in 32 municipalities, planting solely sunflower seeds.

Additionally, Petrobras Biocombustível is purchasing residual oil and fat derived from food frying processes from collector cooperatives and non-governmental organizations working in urban regions.

Technical assistance and seed supply
To ensure more productivity, the company provided 76.44 tons of castor seeds and sunflower seeds certified by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa) to the farmers.

To guide the farmers in the planting and harvesting procedures, the services of the Rural Technical Assistance and Extension Companies (Emater) of the states of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte were hired. The planting of oleaginous plants in consortia with other foodstuff crops, such as beans, is also encouraged.

Location
The city of Quixadá is at the heart of a region that has vocation to produce oleaginous plants, in addition to having appropriate logistics based on railway and road transportation.