Skip to main content

Trial of renewable diesel for Rio buses

Amyris Brasil, a subsidiary of Amyris, has announced that it will supply renewable diesel during a 12-month fleet test involving 20 city buses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The renewable fuel derived from sugarcane, known locally as Diesel de Cana, will be blended at a 30 per cent rate with petroleum-derived diesel and used in Mercedes-Benz buses operated by Viação Saens Peña, a Rio-based bus operator. The Rio transportation federation, Fetranspor, will use the data collected during this fleet test to evaluate
March 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Amyris Brasil, a subsidiary of 4229 Amyris, has announced that it will supply renewable diesel during a 12-month fleet test involving 20 city buses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The renewable fuel derived from sugarcane, known locally as Diesel de Cana, will be blended at a 30 per cent rate with petroleum-derived diesel and used in 1685 Mercedes-Benz buses operated by Viação Saens Peña, a Rio-based bus operator. The Rio transportation federation, Fetranspor, will use the data collected during this fleet test to evaluate the engine and environmental benefits of Amyris’s renewable diesel. The results of the fleet test will be presented at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) taking place in Rio in June 2012.

The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 8,000 buses consuming about 280 million litres of diesel per year. The Rio fleet test is expected to validate the significant reduction of nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions evidenced in recent Mercedes-Benz engine tests with a 30 per cent blend of Amyris’s renewable diesel.

Related Content

  • Volvo's electric buses begin operation in Luxemburg
    June 13, 2017
    From the beginning of June, four of Volvo’s all-electric 7900 buses have been in operation in Differdange, Luxembourg, operated by Sales-Lentz, which also has 12 electric hybrids and 30 hybrids from Volvo in its fleet.
  • Hydrogen: transportation's silver bullet?
    June 22, 2021
    As the quest for carbon-neutrality becomes a key political and economic driver, everyone is on the lookout for new sources of energy - so perhaps hydrogen’s time has come
  • New clean diesel cars and light trucks to ‘help US achieve greenhouse gas reductions’
    July 25, 2016
    Advances in emissions control technology in clean diesel passenger cars and light duty pickup trucks will have a positive effect on efforts to reduce future Greenhouse Gas Emissions, according to the federal government’s newly-released Draft Technical Assessment Report (TAR). The Draft TAR, which covers vehicle model years 2022-2025, confirms that automotive manufacturers are introducing new technology to market at a rapid pace, and predicts that the MY 2022-2025 standards are achievable with a wide ran
  • Brazil to invest US$16 billion in Río Olympics
    April 23, 2014
    Officials in Brazil have estimated the total cost of infrastructure and works related to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero to be US$16.3, with 60 per cent of the funds coming from private investors. Some US$2.5 billion of the overall budget would be spent on projects exclusively directed to the event, Agência Brasil reports. Río de Janeiro city itself will invest US$6.3 billion in fourteen projects, including light rail transit and bus rapid transit projects, as well as drainage works in the