President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva discussed, this Thursday (30), the possibilities to encourage research and place biofuels on the Brazilian export agenda. 
He met with the CEO of Be8, Erasmo Carlos Battistella, and the president of Mercedes-Benz do Brasil and Latin America, Denis Güven, at Palácio do Planalto.
Lula was introduced to the COP30 Sustainable Route trucks and buses, which are vehicles that use the Be8 BeVant biofuel, which promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 99% compared to fossil diesel.
The objective of the route is to test the new Be8 biofuel in Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Two other vehicles with B15 diesel (a mixture of 15% biodiesel in diesel) are also running for comparison.
They left Passo Fundo (RS) on the 20th towards Belém (PA), where the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30) will take place in November, a journey of around 4 thousand kilometers.
According to Battistella, BeVant can replace diesel oil in various types of engines and can be applied, mainly, to long-distance routes, where electrification is difficult.
He asked the president for support, together with the MDIC and Apex, to place biofuels as an export item for Brazil. “This is an immediate decarbonization solution,” said Lula.
The president then suggested that tests be carried out with vehicles produced by Mercedes-Benz in Germany, to assess the level of greenhouse gas reduction.
“Who knows, maybe we can export this here to the world. Who knows, we can import trucks and export [biocombustível] to Germany,” said Lula.
He highlighted Brazil’s agricultural production capacity focused on biofuels and industry, in the development of new technologies, such as BeVant.
“With Brazil’s human intelligence, with Brazilian engineers, we can show the world that the energy transition that the world dreams of is not that difficult. All it takes is political will and the courage to do it,” he said.
Oil
On the other hand, Lula reinforced that it is not possible to give up fossil fuels “overnight” and that there is an “uproar” in Brazil about oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin.
The region, located in the north of the country, is considered the new pre-salt due to its oil potential.
This month, the Petrobras obtained the license from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) to begin exploratory research operations in the region.
“It is necessary to put an end to the use of fossil fuels. And for this we have to research the Equatorial Margin with the care that the environment requires, a responsibility that Brazil has to show that we are going to be the most perfect country from the point of view of the energy transition in the world. We will continue using oil as long as necessary”, he said, stating that the Petrobras will transform at an energy company.
