Vibra Energia has signed an exclusive sales contract for the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that Brasil BioFuels (BBF) intends to produce in Brazil from 2025. The agreement is valid for five years and adds to the contract already signed between the parties for the purchase and sale of HVO green diesel (vegetable oil hydrotreatment).
The raw material for the biofuels will be palm oil produced by BBF in the interior of Roraima.
Refining will take place in a plant to be built in the Manaus Free Trade Zone (AM). This promises to be the first plant to produce both biofuels on an industrial scale in Brazil.
It is expected that about R$ 2 billion will be invested in the initial production of 500 million liters of biofuels per year. The unit is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2025 and will be flexible - that is, it will be able to produce between HVO and SAF.
"Vibra has made the decision to broaden the portfolio of energy offerings that are of interest to customers who want to make the energy transition," company CEO Wilson Ferreira told the press.
In recent months, Vibra - formerly BR Distribuidora - has announced partnerships in the areas of biogas, ethanol marketing, and renewable electricity, and has expressed interest in entering the green hydrogen business.
The company expects to begin marketing HVO and SAF by 2026. The initial volume produced is capable of replacing 2% of the current national demand for aviation kerosene and diesel served by Vibra.
Both HVO and SAF are drop in - that is, their respective uses do not require adaptations in machinery, nor the need for mixing, unlike biodiesel. This allows the substitution of fossil fuels for biofuels to occur more immediately.
Betting on decarbonization in the North Region The use of biofuels can generate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 50 to 90%, compared to diesel and aviation kerosene (QAV). .
According to the executive director of operations at Vibra, Marcelo Bragança, the company's idea, at first, is to serve customers in the Northern Region of the country, helping them in their decarbonization ambitions.
The HVO and SAF initially produced at the BBF plant could replace up to 24% of the regional demand for QAV and diesel served today by Vibra.
Latam, Gol and Azul would be the main stakeholders in the consumption of SAF. Representatives of the airlines, including, were present at the launch event of the project, on Monday (11/04), in Roraima.
BR Aviation - Vibra's brand for supplying aviation fuel - serves 90 airports in Brazil and accounts for 70% of the Brazilian market. In the North, it accounts for 94% of the market.
Already industries and large mining companies in the region, especially Vale in Pará, emerge as potential consumers of green diesel, to replace the diesel that fuels locomotives and large machines and trucks.
"We bet on our customers who are interested in starting to make the transition at some point to use more renewables," Bragança said
BBF promises competitive prices BBF's CEO, Milton Steagall, promises competitive products. The company's ambition, he says, is to deliver the "cheapest green diesel and SAF in Brazil, perhaps in the world".
The company bets on verticalized production. Unlike other HVO and SAF projects around the world, BBF is responsible for the entire biofuel production chain, from growing the raw material to refining the vegetable oil.
Still according to BBF, the productivity of palm oil - one hectare of palm produces ten times more oil than soy - and the lower cost of land in Roraima make green diesel SAF more attractive in the medium term, even in relation to fossil fuels.
"We will be competitive without burdening society. Our effort is for our product to reach international fossil fuel parity as soon as possible," said Steagall.
Most of the palm oil production will be in the municipality of São João da Baliza, in Roraima.
By 2026, oil palm cultivation should recover 120,000 hectares of areas considered degraded in the Amazon. BBF's idea is that this will help in reforestation and the creation of green corridors between areas of native forest, which opens an opportunity to generate carbon credits.
According to the BBF director, Dionisios Vossos, Roraima currently has 31 million hectares of degraded areas suitable for palm planting, which could result in the capture of 97 million tons of carbon.
For comparison, Petrobras expects to reduce absolute emissions from its operations from 62 million to 59 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2025.
"We have a green pre-salt in hand. With this area of 31 million hectares planted with palm, we would be able to have a production greater than the Brazilian pre-salt of fossil oil," commented the director.
*The reporter traveled to Roraima invited by Vibra Energia
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