MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Searching for eco-friendly “biodiesel” fuel.

Brazilian researchers are experimenting with everything from recycled french-fry oil to jungle seed extracts in a search for a “biodiesel” fuel that could make billions and help the environment.

The Mining and Energy Ministry is expected to announce new regulations for the energy sector and authorize adding up to 2 percent of "biodiesel" - a petroleum derivative - to diesel fuel this November.

According to the proposal, biodiesel would be used to fuel engines, electric generators and public transportation vehicle fleets. Several companies are searching for opportunities in a market that consumes 226 million barrels of diesel fuel annually, a third of which is imported.

After years of stagnation, the program has been taken up again in an effort "to diversify the Brazilian energy sector," that seeks the "social inclusion" of thousands of poor farming families, according to the ministry.

The plan calls for the participation of the automotive and fuel industries, universities, laboratories, banks and agricultural unions, cooperatives, companies and two dozen official authorities.

Biodiesel fuel produces 46 percent less carbon dioxide, is environmentally safe and would create a new chain of businesses, technologies and products.

The fuel would also boost agricultural production, according to the state-run agricultural research outfit Embrapa, one of the program's main players.

The increase will occur in the cultivation of spurge, a plant that adapts easily to differing climates, especially in the dry northeastern sector of Brazil.

Brasil Ecodiesel has already announced a "public and private social inclusion" project in the northeastern state of Piaui, where it has invested $26 million.

About 560 poor families have been set up to grow spurge in an area of 18,000 hectares (about 44,400 acres), which is expected to increase to 200,000 hectares (approximately 494,000 acres) with another agriculture project.

But Embrapa has seen better results with dende, a palm oil commonly used in Brazilian cuisine as well as industrial processing.

"Dende is the most promising seed, producing about 5,000 liters per hectare (440 gallons per acre) of fuel-efficient oil," Elias de Freitas, an Embrapa coordinator. "Our understanding is that this program will generate employment and income," he added. Dende oil and spurge crops need manual labor, as opposed to the mechanized cultivation of soybeans and sunflowers, which were also tested for biodiesel but produce only 500 to 800 liters per hectare (between 44 and 70 gallons per acre), Freitas said.

Embrapa is also developing a "mini-refinery" capable of cracking the dende oil molecules to produce an additional 250 liters (55 gallons) daily.

This technology would help generate electricity in small villages in the Amazon, where 26 percent of the residents do not have electric power.

According to some studies, the biggest problem is the cost of producing biodiesel in comparison to regular diesel.

For its supporters, the social and environmental benefits are sufficient to justify the substitution, arguing that producing the eco-friendly fuel in zones consuming it will save transportation costs.

In Sao Paulo, the nation's most populated and industrialized state, tests suggest biodiesel can be produced from leftover fried-food oil in company and university cafeterias and fast-food chains