Agência Brasil*
Rio de Janeiro – Brazilian oil company Petrobras informed yesterday (27) that it is going to start distributing diesel with 50 ppm (particles per million) of sulphur to makers of diesel-powered vehicles. The product is going to be tested by the vehicle makers.
In a press statement, the company informed that the fuel complies with the demands by the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel Agency (ANP) requiring 50-ppm diesel for engine development testing.
The press statement also adds that starting in June, the company should start supplying reference diesel for consumption and emission testing.
The initiative is aimed at allowing carmakers to use the fuel in the development of engines for compliancy with phase P-6 of the Program for Control of Air Pollution by Automotive Vehicles – Proconve.
Petrobras has been participating in Proconve since the beginning, in 1986 and, in compliancy with the legal demands established, has gradually been reducing the percentage of sulphur in diesel traded in the country.
In the early 1990s, the level of sulphur in the diesel traded in the country was 13,000 ppm. Nowadays the fuel supplied by the company for use in metropolitan areas has 500 ppm of sulphur.
In a recent interview by the Supply and Refining director at Petrobras, Paulo Roberto Costa, the executive said that by 2009 Petrobras should already be supplying diesel with 50 ppm of sulphur for use in heavy vehicles moving around Brazil.
*Translated by Mark Ament
