In October the Williams F1 team’s oil and lubricant supplier and long term partner, Petrobras, welcomed the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to their leading Research and Development Centre (CENPES) in Rio de Janeiro. The visit provided Petrobras with the opportunity to demonstrate their ground-breaking bioethanol fuel development programme.
Petrobras’ state-of the-art new test unit is capable of producing ethanol from agribusiness residues. With the first generation of biofuels sourced directly from raw, agricultural materials (such as ethanol from sugarcane and biodiesel from vegetable and seed oils) Petrobras’ innovative bioethanol fuel is extracted from already-utilised agribusiness sources and is therefore classed as a second generation biofuel. In the same vein, Petrobras are also developing two unique eco-friendly strands of biodiesel using the H-BIO process.
Petrobras’ revolutionary bioethanol production process is the first research project of its kind and has awarded the Brazilian company its 1000th patent application.
In light of the revised regulations for 2008 surrounding fuel, all Formula One cars will be obliged to run with a 5.75% blend of oxygenates derived from biological sources next season. The new rules are consistent with one of the latest EU directives which will require all road cars to use the same bio-content blend of fuel by 2010. With Petrobras a leading innovator and producer in the biofuel market, AT&T Williams will be well placed going into 2008 with the new regulations.
Ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix this year, Petrobras engaged its partnership with the team to run a Williams Toyota FW29 in its annual motorsport festival on the streets of Rio. To demonstrate its new technology, Petrobras fuelled the car with its new strain of bioethanol fuel. The event marked the first time a Formula One car has ever run using a biofuel. The team’s test driver, Kazuki Nakajima, took to the wheel of the FW29 prior to his debut outing in a Formula One Grand Prix and performed a series of high speed demonstrations in front of 35,000 people.
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