Brazil’s Diesel Fuel Alternatives

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A universal Mercedes diesel—the six cylinder Type 352—serves as a
A universal Mercedes diesel—the six cylinder Type 352—serves as a "test bed" for Brazilian alternative fuel research. This engine operates on diesel fuel, a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline, or a blend of diesel fuel and vegetable oil. With minor adjustments, it burns alcohol too!
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A small percentage of the Sao Paulo city bus fleet has been operating on alcohol as a diesel fuel alternative since last year with excellent results ... and far fewer toxic exhaust emissions.
A small percentage of the Sao Paulo city bus fleet has been operating on alcohol as a diesel fuel alternative since last year with excellent results ... and far fewer toxic exhaust emissions.

Not long ago, two of MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ editors returned from Brazil, where they had been investigating that country’s massive effort to replace virtually all of its presently imported petroleum fuels with homegrown energy in the next decade or so. Clearly, the forward-thinking South American nation sees the “shape of things to come” … and has chosen to take a positive course of action rather than merely fret about the future.

One of the major concerns of the Brazilian people is the availability of diesel fuel, since 80% of that country’s goods (and most of its commercial passengers) are transported by heavy trucks and buses. Because even less diesel oil than gasoline can be gleaned from a barrel of crude petroleum, it’s easy to understand why efforts are being made to look for viable domestic diesel fuel alternatives.

Appropriately enough, Mercedes-Benz (which supplies much of South America with diesel vehicles) of Brazil has been busily engaged in researching alternative fuels since early in 1973 … and as of September 1979 has been testing its experimental fleet commercially, in the field, with excellent results.

Naturally, because Brazil has been so heavily involved in what they refer to as the “pro-alcohol” program, engineers at M-B have been primarily interested in running their diesel engines on ethanol … but they’ve also been actively working with two other types of fuels that show great promise: a combination of diesel oil and gasoline, and a mixture of vegetable oil and diesel fuel.

How They Did It

  • Published on Jul 1, 1980
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