May 03, 2010
Peanut Oil Possible Alternative to Soybean Oil in Biodiesel Production
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
As Brazil continues to expand its biodiesel program, researchers are looking for alternative vegetable oils to replace soybean oil that now comprises approximately 80% of the feedstock used to make biodiesel. Researchers feel that peanut oil holds the best promise to substitute for soybean oil.
Currently 90% of the peanut production in Brazil is in the state of Sao Paulo where it is used as a rotational crop for sugarcane production. The vast majority of the peanuts grown in Brazil are used in the confectionary market, so little peanut oil is available for biodiesel production, but that may soon change.
The peanut varieties grown in Brazil are relatively low in oil, but new varieties can be as high as 50% oil making them much better than soybeans for oil production. Peanut production in Brazil has other advantages as well. It is a crop that can easily be grown by small family farmers in northeastern Brazil. This is the poorest region of Brazil and it also a region that has a deficit of biofuel production. The government has been looking for ways to increase farm income in the region and peanuts which are destined for biodiesel production appears to be a good alternative.
In fact, Petrobras, Brazil's largest company, recently announced plans to build another biodiesel plant in Bahia that could use peanuts as the feedstock. The plant should be up and running in 2012 and once operational, it will double the amount of biodiesel produced in the state. Petrobras has also announced that during the next five years, the company will allocate R$ 1 billion for investments in various other biofuel projects.
In addition to having discovered huge oil reserves off the southeast coast of Brazil. Petrobras has been aggressively expanding into the agribusiness sector of Brazil. The company recently purchased various ethanol production plants, they are constructing four fertilizer plants, and they have numerous biodiesel production facilities as well.