Vegetable oil in agricultural machinery
Vegetable oil in agricultural machinery – It is not new that some Brazilian farmers use vegetable oils – including soybean oil purchased at the supermarket – in tractor engines and agricultural machinery, replacing diesel oil from petroleum, an input that represents a significant part of the costs of these producers.
However, the solution is not recommended by experts, because residues generated in the combustion of vegetable oil, among other factors, damage these engines built to use diesel.
Now, a modified engine and corresponding fuel adequacy developed by a researcher from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DEMec) of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) may signify the feasibility of this alternative.
The engine, powered by heated soybean oil and highly hydrated ethanol – ethanol mixed with water -, would represent not only the possibility of self-sufficiency for the rural producer, but also a more environmentally suitable alternative, as it is a renewable source and, also, due to its reabsorption. of carbon dioxide generated in the combustion of the following harvest, via photosynthesis.
The technology is part of a research program that is also looking for other bioenergetic alternatives to replace fossil fuels, such as, for example, the production of renewable aviation kerosene.
Led by Márcio Turra de Ávila, professor at DEMec, the research that resulted in the soy oil engine was developed during his postdoctoral internship at the São Carlos School of Engineering (EESC) of the University of São Paulo (USP).
One of the possibilities for replacing petroleum diesel is biodiesel. However, its production process is also expensive. Vegetable oils, despite being cheaper, present technical difficulties due to their viscosity, which, in the solution developed by the UFSCar researcher, was lowered by heating from the engine’s heat rejection.
This modification, associated with the use of ethanol mixed with water, resulted in an efficiency similar to that of the petroleum diesel engine, with a good level of combustion and reduction in the emission of almost all pollutants.
The technology has been patented, and field tests will still be needed, with machines operating for a few thousand hours, to prove its full viability. However, in recent years, fluctuations in the international market associated with weather conditions and, mainly, the pandemic, have greatly increased the price of soybean oil in Brazil, pushing away potential partners to carry out these tests. “Besides the environmental issue, the economy and the strategic issue of dominating the production of energy in our own country, there is also an important social aspect, due to the jobs generated in the agricultural chain. Therefore, we remain confident in the value of technology”, says Ávila.
