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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Time for a rethink on road user charging
    February 1, 2012
    There is no value in further US VMT charging trials, except to delay the inevitable. These trials should end after completion of the University of Iowa's National Evaluation of a Mileage-based Road User Charge. There is far greater promise in unleashing private operators to commence profitable, non-tolling services, then using these for toll assessment and collection as fuel distributors are currently used to collect fuel taxation. Bern Grush writes
    Read More
  • UK introduces grants for low-emission retrofit bus fleets
    September 29, 2017
    The UK government have set up a £30 million grant scheme for local authorities in England and Wales looking to fit bus fleets with an accredited and cost-effective retrofit program that enables emissions-reductions. The Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme, developed by LowCVP and Energy Saving Trust, follows an evaluation report presented by LowCVP on findings from two public grant programmes that used retrofit technologies over a five-year period -- the clean Vehicle
    Read More
  • Camera technology a flexible and cost-effective option
    June 7, 2012
    Perceptions of machine vision being an expensive solution are being challenged by developments in both core technologies and ancillaries. Here, Jason Barnes and David Crawford look at the latest developments in the sector. A notable aspect of machine vision is the flexibility it offers in terms of how and how much data is passed around a network. With smart cameras, processing capabilities at the front end mean that only that which is valid need be communicated back to a central processor of any descripti
    Read More
  • European trends in environmental monitoring and enforcement
    February 2, 2012
    David Crawford surveys European trends in environmental monitoring and enforcement
    Read More

Highlighted Content