Amyris, a company focused on supplying eco-friendly alternatives to a wide range of fossil fuel-based products, has declared that it will provide the renewable diesel required for testing a fleet of 20 city busses running in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a period of 12 months.
Industrial Synthetic Biology Platform. Credit: Amyris, Inc.
The city has over 8,000 buses guzzling around 280 Ml of diesel every year. The proposed test is anticipated to confirm the achieved level of decrease in particulate matter and nitrogen oxide discharges in the recently conducted tests on a Mercedes-Benz engine utilizing 30% renewable diesel blend supplied by Amyris.
Amyris, has formulated a renewable pure-hydrocarbon diesel fuel deduced from plant-based sugars, which does not need further modifications for its use in engines. The renewable diesel with comparable energy solidity of petroleum diesel has high level of cetane and established performance in cold weather conditions. The product has assisted the company to get the highest level of blending registration for it by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The fuel regularly receives validation certificates from OEM partners for enabling notable level of reductions in tailpipe emissions and greenhouse gas discharges.
During the fleet test process, the renewable diesel supplied by the company known as Diesel de Cana in the local language will be mixed at a 30% level with fossil fuel diesel and will be used in Mercedes-Benz buses operated by the Rio based operator Viação Saens Peña. FETRANSPOR, the Rio transportation federation will utilize the data gathered during the fleet test to assess the ecological benefits and engine performance of utilizing the renewable diesel supplied by Amyris.
The results of the conducted fleet tests will be showcased in the proposed United Nations Meet on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) scheduled to take place during June 2012 in Rio.