San Pablo: Buses run on biofuel

St. Paul adopted ethanol as alternative fuel to combat climate change. The mayor of the district, Gilberto Kassab, announced the acquisition of 150 Scania ethanol buses for public transport and said that the first 50 will enter service in May.

"The use of ethanol as fuel is the best example of what can be done here and now on the road to sustainable development. Ethanol, which is made from sugar cane, has 90% of available renewable fuel in the world, "said the official, while the vice president and head of Scania Buses & Coaches, Melker Jernberg, celebrated the contribution made by the automaker," helping to strengthen Brazil's leadership position in reducing the impact of climate " .

Public transport in San Pablo moves a total of approximately 15,000 buses and "one of the environmental objectives is that they all operate on renewable fuels before
, 2018, according to projections by Kassab, who warned: "Since the limited supply of biogas, ethanol is the dominant biofuel. "This means that there is great potential for Scania, which is the only manufacturer of heavy buses with engines powered by ethanol," according to the expectations that Wilson said Pereira, head of sales area in Brazil.

The order of the 150 units that received Scania, came after several years of field trials in Sao Paulo city, where specialists from the University of San Pablo, ethanol suppliers and representatives of local government transport.
"The initiative demonstrated that ethanol buses are equipped to operate in Brazil, contributing immediately to replace fossil fuels with a renewable energy source," said the Swedish firm.

The automaker released that Brazil is the largest producer of ethanol fuel and has a long experience in the production and use of biofuels in a sustainable manner. Ethanol from sugar cane has been used since 1980 as fuel for cars and other vehicles. "The success of public policies on land management has led to increased production of bioenergy and other agricultural products," they said.

Scania started to develop ethanol buses from those early years, "in close cooperation with the regional public transport company in Stockholm, Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL)." Rescued from this experience that after "two decades of large-scale operation has been demonstrated that ethanol is a fully proven technology for urban transport."

Editorial Expotrade