From left to right: Márcio Lauria, Adriano Sales, Adão Mattos, Nádia Armelin (R&D managers) and André Conde, in charge of the area

A young team with a good deal of experience and strong academic background is at the forefront of the main research lines at the chemical company Oxiteno, serving markets as diverse as cosmetics, industrial and household cleaning products, paints and coatings, agrochemicals, oil & gas, among other items. André Conde, 39, who has been with the company for 17 years, heads the national research and development (R&D) area. “I began as a trainee, and was then hired as a researcher,” says Condé, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of São Paulo (USP), a Master’s degree in chemistry from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and an MBA from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV). Of the 1,600 employees at Oxiteno, 100 work in R&D. Every year, the company allocates about 1.5% of its sales, which last year were R$ 2.5 billion, to this sector.

About to commemorate its 40^th anniversary, this Brazilian multinational chemical company is headquartered in São Paulo, and belongs to the Ultra group. It is present in eight countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has 11 industrial units located throughout Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela, as well as three R&D centers outside Brazil. In the Company’s portfolio of 400 products, 300 are surfactants, also called tensoactive agents. “A surfactant is a very special molecule that has the ability to make materials that do not mix become compatible,” says Conde. Present in almost all industrial process, they are used in products as diverse as shampoos and detergents, in polymerizing of paints and in the application of pesticides in the fields. “We are the largest surfactant producer in Latin America,” he says. Oxiteno also manufactures solvents, intermediary chemicals and syntheses that are used in the manufacture of other products.

To differentiate itself on the market, the Company seeks to go beyond the production of chemical compounds based on petrochemical sources. It has invested in research to find technological solutions that use renewable sources, like soybean and palm oils and sugarcane derivatives. Last year, for example, Oxiteno announced the release of an additive that modifies the properties of ethanol to allow its use in diesel engines, replacing the petroleum based fuel. This innovative and less polluting solution received the Kurt Politzer 2011 Technology award in the company category, given by the Brazilian Association of the Chemical Industry (Abiquim).

This product, which is in the final validation phase, was developed by the Company’s oil & gas area, under the coordination of Nádia Armelin, who is now in charge of R&D for the paints and varnishes area.  Armelin holds a degree in chemical engineering from Unicamp and an MBA from FGV. She is 31 years old, and has been at Oxiteno, where she began as a trainee, for eight years.

Another release this May in the renewables line is a coalescent used in decorative paint that has  low volatile organic compound content (VOC), i.e., it is low in the aromatic compounds that contribute to air pollution. The coalescent is the raw material that plasticizes the surface of particles that make up latex wall paint and is responsible for the paint’s resistance, lifespan and shine. Palm oil was used instead of raw materials of petrochemical origin. “We are selling the product to the Middle East, South Africa and we are in the process of getting it approved in Europe,” Armelin says. To determine whether the coalescent is volatile, researchers are using as a reference the European regulation that requires all compounds having a boiling point below 250ºC to be considered as high VOC products. The boiling point is calculated by taking into account the volatility of the molecules and the interactions among the product’s components. “The coalescent we have developed has a boiling point of 294ºC,” says Armelin.

The area of paints and varnishes is one of the main markets for Oxiteno, since surfactants, solvents and coalescents are all used in their formulation, and these are all produced by the Company. Only the pigments and resins are not part of the Company’s portfolio, which serves both the decoration and original automotive paint markets, as well as the furniture industry. “In addition to the low VOC coalescent, we manufacture solvents made from sugarcane for a variety of uses.”

Analysis of solution composed of surfactants

Oxiteno has undergone an accelerated process of internationalization. Recently, in addition to the industrial units in Mexico and Venezuela, it purchased a facility in the United States to produce surfactants and chemical specialties for the agrochemical, cosmetics and household and industrial cleaning markets, beginning in 2013. “Our R&D sector has to be able to generate innovations to technologically differentiate the Company, not just in Brazil, but also in Europe and in the global markets,” says Conde.

The innovation strategy includes the development of new technologies for green chemicals, reinforcement of cooperation with universities and research centers and an increase in the intellectual property base. “Many ideas for new products emerge from the technical interaction with our customers, but many other proposals come from within Oxiteno itself, which follows trends and patents and interacts with consultants who have excellent reputations and a high degree of professional experience,” says Márcio Tavares Lauria, 44, and a process development manager, who leads a team of 17 people. A chemical engineer with a degree from USP, Lauria has been at the company for 21 years. “Oxiteno believes that partnerships are a way to more quickly, assertively and effectively leverage technology,” says Lauria, who holds an MBA from the Brazilian Capital Markets Institute, (Ibmec), now known as Insper.

Academic partnerships
Among the partners are universities and research centers, which are considered to be elements that bring new technologies to fruition. The Company has several projects underway in partnership with institutions in Brazil and abroad, as well as others that were concluded during the past three years. FAPESP is one of these partners. At the end of 2006, together with Oxiteno, the Foundation sent out a call for projects in lignocellulosics, in order to use enzyme processes on sugarcane cellulose, straw and tops to obtain products that currently are produced by the chemical and petrochemical routes. This call led to three projects in collaboration with the Institute for Technological Research, Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory and USP.

In Venezuela, the R&D center has an innovative project underway in partnership with the University of the Andes to develop extended surfactants. “They are called extended because they differ chemically from conventional molecules, which enables them to achieve greater tensoactive efficiency in uses like cosmetics, detergents and agrochemicals,” Lauria emphasizes.

“Within our strategy of innovation, there is a study focused on capturing trends,” says Conde. As an example, he mentions the green tensoactive project, in which embryonic synthesis routes were identified in the scientific literature. Today, one of the Company’s researchers, Priscila Milani, who is pursuing post-doctoral studies at Unicamp and is the recipient of a scholarship from the National Council on Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), is totally dedicated to this project. “The research involves a genuinely innovative synthesis route.”

Surfactant surface tension analysis method

An important source of support within this strategy is the science and technology council, created in 2004 and made up of external specialists. There are seven members in the surfactant area and three in paints and solvents who meet annually to discuss trends and strategies in innovation. Twice a year, meetings are held that feature presentations of the best cases from the four R&D areas, divided into paints and varnishes, household and industrial cleaning, cosmetics and personal care products, and agrochemicals. The paint coalescent with low VOC developed by Nádia Armelin’s team was presented at one of these meetings.

The R&D group for household and industrial cleaning products, managed by Adão Mattos, decided to extend this innovation to the self-polishing waxes used in homes. “We developed a coalescent product that offers advantages over the petrochemical products currently used, such as low VOC emissions and the use of renewable sources for raw materials,” says Mattos, who is 38 years old and has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in chemical engineering from Unicamp and an MBA from FGV. He has been at Oxiteno for 14 years.

Less energy
Among the most important products introduced last year is a liquid thickening agent used to give consistency to products like shampoo. “The products that are on the market now are in solid form and need to be heated before they can be used, which requires customers to consume energy,” says Mattos. The formulation developed does not cause irritation and is clear, so it can be added to products for children and feminine hygiene cleansers and other uses.

In the agrochemical area, a liquid thickener was also released this year. “This is a new product that requires no preliminary preparation. All you have to do is to add it to the formulation until you get the desired viscosity,” says Adriano Sales, 35, the R&D coordinator for agrochemicals. Sales holds a degree in chemical engineering from the Mauá School of Engineering and an MBA with a specialization in product engineering from USP. He has worked at Oxiteno for 16 years, after beginning as a technical level intern at the factory. “The purpose of agrochemical formulations is to increase productivity in the field,” he explains. Within the group of agrochemicals, surfactants are important, as they contribute to the development of more efficient formulas. Since a large part of the active ingredients are not water-soluble, Oxiteno has also produced green solvents for agrochemicals using soybean and sugarcane oils, which are used to replace some petroleum-based solvents.

Ramon de Paula
NASA Mission Engineer

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Fashion designer Ronaldo Fraga’s runway show during this year’s São Paulo Fashion Week: models with ribbon lamps

Flexible lamps in the shape of ribbons that can be attached to walls, ceilings and even to baseboards. Lighting architecture and technology are going in this direction and new ways of using these flexible ribbons, made mostly of polymers, have enabled unusual uses even before becoming commercial. This was illustrated by fashion designer Ronaldo Fraga’s runway show during the São Paulo Fashion Week, held in São Paulo in June of this year. The models were embellished with electroluminescent ribbons called Lume. The ribbon lamps are manufactured by Csem Brasil, a private applied research center in the State of Minas Gerais. The Center specializes in technology development and transfer, especially in the field of organic electronics and micro systems. Connected to tiny batteries attached to the models’ bodies, the ribbon lamps were publicly displayed for the first time.

The development and manufacturing of the Lume in Brazil has placed the country on a par with Europe, the United States, and China in this respect, within a global market that still has plenty of room to be explored. The Lume ribbons generate light over an entire surface and are mostly used in the production of displays for electronic products, such as clocks, the interior of airplanes and automobiles, advertising panels and decorative elements. They last for about 10 thousand hours and are energy-efficient.

Csem resorted to the electronic roll-printing technology used to make organic semiconductors, even though these illuminated ribbons do not specifically use organic polymers. The Lumes are manufactured in a printing machine called Roll to Roll, the first of its kind in South America. It works like a newspaper rotary press. Basically, the Lume contains a layer of a phosphorus-based material between two electrodes. One electrode, called ITO – the acronym for indium tin oxide, is transparent. The other one is a silver ink electrode. The electric field formed by the two electrodes lights up the phosphorus electrons and when they return to their original state they emit a red, white, blue, or green light, depending on the color of the paint that was used. The flexible lamp uses a PET polymer as a substrate, the same one used for soft drink and mineral water bottles. The ribbon is formed by going through the machine’s rolls and receives different layers.

The organic polymers are the main elements in the manufacturing of organic light-emitting diodes (Oleds), composed mostly of carbon. Oleds are the next big thing in the lighting and screen industry after the LED, used in special lamps and TV screens. The technological route for the manufacturing of the Lume is the same followed by the Oleds and opens up the way for the development of devices with organic polymers, such as photovoltaic cells that can be printed and flexible, used in solar energy generation systems. Csem does not plan to invest in the large-scale production of Oleds or displays at present. Other countries are ready to dominate the manufacturing of these devices. This is why engineer Tiago Maranhão Alves, executive director of the Center, states that the photovoltaic cell made of organic semiconductors will be the first organic product manufactured for general consumption.

Recycling energy
“Besides being able to gain significant market share, we have the natural resources to enter, compete and win this game,” he says. According to Venter’s plan, the first commercial photovoltaic cells will be on the market within a year. They can be used to make low-cost, light and flexible solar panels, computer keyboard drivers, mobile devices, and remote controls. These cells will also be able to capture home light or sunlight and produce an electric current, acting as an “energy recycler.” Another market for these cells will be the electric power generation in remote locations that lack power distribution grids.

The roll machine that prints and produces the ribbons

In Maranhao’s opinion, nobody can build a new value chain alone. “This can only be done through extensive research and partnerships.” Csem has already got funding from the State of Minas Gerais (Foundation for the Support of Research/Fapemig) and from the National Bank for Social and Economic Development (BNDES) for its projects. In Minas Gerais, an agreement between the State Bureau of Science and Technology, Fapemig and the private sector is driving the development of that technology. “The important feature of this project is that the government is fostering a partnership between the university and the private sector to develop state-of-the-art technology that will generate wealth, jobs and development for the country,” explains Mario Neto Borges, Fapemig chairman. The foundation has already invested R$ 7 million and the Center and the BNDES added another R$ 15 million.

Joint exchange
A Memorandum of Understanding for Academic Cooperation, Research, and Development signed by the institutions has led to an exchange program involving researchers and professionals with master’s degrees, doctorates, and post-doctorates. The professionals come from universities and companies in the State of Minas Gerais. The Imperial College Center for Plastic Electronics has also partnered with the Minas Gerais Center. The latter is one of the world’s foremost organic electronics centers. Physicist Donald Bradley, the Center’s director, is one of the inventors of electroluminescence in conjugated polymers. Ten Brazilian researchers have already worked with him thanks to an exchange agreement. Upon their return, they were hired by Csem. Pursuant to the agreement, the patents registered by the center will belong to the partners involved in the project, including Fapemig.

The first steps that resulted in organic and print electronics were taken in Tokyo in 1976. That year, Hideki Shirakawa, a Japanese researcher from the Tokyo Technological Institute, was trying to synthesize polyacetylene, a type of plastic. Polyacetylene is a simple polymer made up of two atoms: carbon and hydrogen. But the researcher made a mistake – he added more catalyst than necessary to the compound. By doing this, Hideki produced a shiny film that resembled aluminum foil. Soon thereafter, he partnered with two American scientists – chemist Alan MacDiarmid and physicist Alan Heeger, who were working at the University of Pennsylvania. While working on the shiny film that had been produced by the Japanese researcher, the two Americans noticed that when doping carbon with iodine, the film turned into a golden metallic sheet with electric conductivity. This was how the first organic semiconductor made from a polymer was discovered. The discovery resulted in the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, awarded to the three scientists in 2000. Nearly 40 years after this discovery, many practical applications for those semiconductors have been analyzed. Now the race is on among scientists, private institutions and government institutions to discover how to manufacture these organic and print electronics-based products efficiently, inexpensively and on a wide scale.

The race to place the Oled in the market has driven major lighting manufacturers, such as Germany’s Osram, to invest in Oleds made with organic semiconductors. The main advantage of this material is that it is not a junction of individual emitting points. It consists of a flexible surface that generates light uniformly and which can therefore be more easily molded and adapted to different shapes and environments. The company has a manufacturing facility in the city of Regensburg, Germany, prepared to be the first large-scale, Oled pilot production line in the world. The first commercial products used to light offices and in the retail industry have already been tested in Munich and Berlin and are scheduled to come to Brazil in the near future. Joyce Calil, Osram’s sales manager in Brazil, expects that “from 2015 onwards, the first applications in the market will be for functional light.”

Aris with the Brazilian-made battery in a street on the campus of the Cidade Universitária, in São Paulo

Lithium batteries are widely used – for example, in mobile devices and notebooks, the most common gadgets to run on these batteries. By accumulating and releasing electric power in these electronic devices, they make life easier and fun for everybody. Bigger and more powerful, lithium batteries are the main component of recently developed electric cars, such as Nissan’s Leaf. These batteries are being tested in two taxi cabs in São Paulo. Lithium batteries are also a component in hybrid cars with gasoline engines, such as GM’s Volt. These batteries emit very little pollution and this is why they have a powerful environmental appeal, as they have become a source of clean energy in comparison to engines fueled by oil by-products.

In Brazil, the first lithium battery prototype – lithium batteries are manufactured by more than a dozen companies around the world – was manufactured in July by Electrocell, a small company installed in the Center of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology (Cietec), at USP’s Cidade Universitária campus, in São Paulo. Soon thereafter, the battery was installed in a small van – the Aris – that can carry 350 kilos of cargo. The silent van is part of a project being conducted by electric power utility CPFL from São Paulo State. The Aris van was made by Edra, a producer of special cars in the city of Rio Claro (SP). Initially equipped with batteries made in China, the vehicle, now equipped with a Brazilian-made battery, may become commercially feasible for specific niches, such as CPFL, to deliver mail, transport electronic equipment, or deliver ingredients to restaurants.

“We have already identified the partners of the entire automotive technology chain,” says Flávio Eduardo Lopes, director of Edra. Building a factory to manufacture electric vans will require investments of R$ 10 million to produce one thousand units a year. “If we manage to achieve this production, and taking into account that the battery costs half of the price of the vehicle, it’s possible that each Aris can be sold for about R$ 60 thousand,” says Lopes. “The vehicle is feasible, though it is more expensive than similar dual fuel vehicles, because each battery is expected to last for 10 years, the equivalent to driving a car for 300 thousand kilometers.” The vehicle can reach up to 80 kilometers an hour and needs to re-charge the battery every 100 kilometers. It takes the Aris up to seven hours to recharge the battery plugged into a standard 200-volt outlet.

A higher number of electric vehicles is expected to become part of the planet’s total fleet, slowly and steadily. In the United States, according to a study on the production of lithium ion batteries, conducted at Duke University’s Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness, published in October 2010, hybrid or electric cars and vans are expected to account for more than one half of new car sales in the U.S. market by 2020.  In the conclusion of the study, the researchers, headed by Marcy Lowe, state that the automobile industry is moving away from gasoline engines to invest in electric motors and that the key element for this change is the availability of advanced lithium batteries. “The United States must be able to produce lithium ion batteries to remain competitive,” the study warns.

The global battery market is expected to react soon, according to the estimates of the German consulting firm Roland Berger. As stated in a report published early this year, the lithium ion battery market for automotive use is expected to total more than US$ 9 billion by 2015. In the restricted field of advanced batteries, used in electric systems and equipment, the market is expected to total US$ 7.6 billion in 2017, according to Pike Research, a U.S. consulting firm.

The market for batteries in electric systems is another business that Electrocell is focusing on. In the so-called smart grids, consumers – especially companies – will play a leading role in monitoring and managing the electric power consumed. Each consumer will be able to generate and distribute his own power through solar or wind-powered systems, for example, and electricity may be accumulated in lithium batteries. The batteries can also be charged during non-peak hours, such as the very early morning, for instance, when power rates are cheaper, rather than during peak hours, which run from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, when the rates are higher. To become fully functional, smart-grids still depend on specific laws in Brazil.

Electrocell’s battery, assembled in modules, is installed in a van

According to the Center of Management and Strategic Studies (CGEE), linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), 178 smart grid projects have been registered in R&D programs coordinated by the National Power Agency (Aneel). In December 2011, the Center presented the paper Redes elétricas inteligentes: contexto nacional [Smart power grids: national context], with a list of 178 smart grid projects. The smart grid projects encompass such items as intelligent power metering services, and the generation and distribution of electricity in micro-grids, specifically, for instance, for a company running on solar or wind power systems. The 178 projects account for investments of R$ 411 million. Data collected and analyzed by the CGEE shows that China, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States lead the financial forecasts for projects focusing on the modernization of the respective power grids. By 2030, investments in these smart grids is expected to total US$ 178 billion.

Electrocell plans to build a plant in 2030 to manufacture lithium ion batteries to participate in the national smart grid and electric car markets. “We are negotiating the investment funding with venture capital firms and investment banks,” says engineer Gilberto Janólio, a partner in Electrocell. The company went into business in 2000, with a fuel cells project, a battery that produces electric power from hydrogen. The project was funded by FAPESP’s Innovative Research at Small Companies Project (Pipe) (see Pesquisa FAPESP no. 92 and no. 173).

Developing the battery in Brazil was a challenge for Electrocell. It took the company a year and a half to produce it. “It was an integrated engineering development; we defined the control and the equilibrium of the electric charge of each element in the battery and the arrangement of the entire set. All of this was done in line with the car’s control software. We also worked on collision and vibration engineering,” says Janólio. “Another major factor was the development of a suitable ventilation system for the country’s warm climate,” says Volkmar Ett, another partner in Electrocell. To manufacture the batteries, the company partnered with Cegasa, a Spanish enterprise that manufactures batteries and set up business in Brazil two years ago. In Spain, Cegasa develops experimental batteries for the Spanish car company Seat, controlled by Volkswagen. “They supply us with the lithium wafers and we build the battery,” says Janólio.

The market for these batteries includes hybrid buses with electric and conventional engines, small trucks, company data processing centers, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). “We have received many orders, and all we need to do now is to produce the batteries in series,” says Ett. The company’s business plan, prepared by consultant Luiz Carlos Rocha Paes, foresees the manufacturing of 213 batteries for vans, buses and small motorcycles in 2014. Sales estimates amount to R$ 25 million. “But the predicted demand potential in 2014 is 966 batteries, which will probably be complemented by imported batteries,” says Paes. “We believe that Electrocell may achieve a 22% market share,” he says.

In the case of CPFL, which first built electric cars in 2009, the Brazilian-made batteries guarantee the continuity and progress of the project. “For CPFL, electric cars exemplify the technology that enables us to find out how this technology works on a daily basis. This is not an R&D project; we want to show that it is possible to manufacture electric cars in Brazil and we have already bought four Aris cars,” says engineer Marcelo Rodrigues Soares, coordinator of the project at CPFL. The company invested approximately R$ 3 million for the purchase of the cars and the batteries. “Our tests showed us that the cost of driving this electric vehicle is equivalent to one-fourth (1/4) of the mileage we get from a vehicle that runs on gasoline,” says Soares. The Aris has been ratified by the National Transit Department (Denatran) since March 2010 and can travel all over the country.

In spite of the favorable outlook for this new market, the price of the batteries is expected to drive some consumers away. “In Brazil, we need to see how much more consumers are willing to pay than they pay for a vehicle with a gasoline engine, for example, in order to have a more efficient way of reducing CO₂ emissions,” says Francisco Nigro, a professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP) and technical advisor to the São Paulo State Bureau of Economic Development, Science, and Technology. “The prospects indicate that going forward, the price of the battery will drop and the equipment will become more feasible for the automotive market, “Nigro explains.

The most promising discovery of these superconductors was announced in June of this year in an article published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Here, the researchers from Lorena, in partnership with materials engineer Ausdinir Bortolozo, from the Federal University of Itajubá, and physicists Renato Jardim, from USP, and Flávio Gandra, from the State University of Campinas, describe what happens when carbon atoms are added during the manufacturing process of a well-known metal compound, Nb5Ge3, a combination of niobium and germanium. This compound, which emerged in 1977, had not been of great interest to the science of materials because it became a superconductor at a temperature that was considered to be too low – less than -272 degrees Celsius (°C). “The electrical behavior of the doped material changed completely,” says Machado, who has already achieved preliminary results from other successful doping of Nb5Ge3, by using six other chemical elements.

The carbon-doped material is a superconductor at a temperature of -258°C, the highest temperature ever achieved by the Brazilian engineers. This temperature is of interest to industry. Although this is extremely low, it is 11 degrees above the boiling point of liquid helium (-269.15°C), normally used to cool superconductor metals in their technological applications, for instance, in equipment used for magnetic resonance imaging.

No resistance
In a superconductor material, the electric resistance disappears below a given temperature. This means that an electric current can travel through the material without losing energy in the form of heat. Superconductivity was observed for the first time in 1911 by Dutch physicist Heike Onnes. A number of superconducting materials – most of them metallic – have been discovered since then. They function as such in extremely low temperatures, a few degrees above absolute zero (-273°C).

Though relatively high, the temperature achieved by the Brazilians is far from the world record, achieved by another class of materials based on copper oxides. This class of materials first appeared in laboratories in 1987, with superconducting temperatures above -196°C. However, the fact that they are ceramic makes them heterogeneous and brittle, which hinders large scale production. This is why there is an on-going search for a superconducting material that can function at higher temperatures and is malleable and homogeneous like metals.

According to physicist Zachary Fisk, from the University of California at Irvine, the discovery made by the Brazilian engineers has opened up the possibility of using interstitial doping to find the greatly desired high-temperature superconducting metal alloys. “This is an exciting development,” he says.

Scientific article
BORTOLOZO, A. D. et al. Interstitial doping induced superconductivity at 15.3K in Nb5Ge3 compound. Journal of Applied Physics. 2012.

At CTBE, equipment to test spark plugs and to study the burning of ethanol in engines

Drivers who drove ethanol-fueled cars in the 1980s certainly remember the choke, a button or lever that had to be pulled to inject more fuel into the engine when turning the engine on to warm it up and make it work properly. Technological progress resulted in automatic chokes and triggered the development of the dual-fuel system in the early 2000s. In this system, gasoline and ethanol are placed together in the same engine in any combination in terms of the percentages of each. This configuration became a best-seller, though it still needs some adjustments, especially regarding ethanol consumption, which is 30% higher than that of gasoline. This drawback is now being analyzed more extensively, thanks to several partnerships between research institutes, the automotive industry and the car parts industry.

“We know very little about how ethanol burns inside the engine,” says engineer Jayr de Amorim Filho, a researcher at the National Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory (CTBE) in the city of Campinas, São Paulo State . “Since 2009, we have conducted basic studies on the plasma that forms between the spark ignited by the spark plug and the ethanol combustion inside the engine,” he says. “We have already proposed new techniques to enable us to better understand what goes on during the ignition when the burning of the ethanol spreads throughout the space, provoking a chemical reaction and releasing the energy to move the vehicle forward.”

The researchers were able to view what happens in the engine using an optic fiber attached to the spark plug. The optic fiber goes into the inside of the engine, “like an endoscope,” says Amorim, and it captures the light emitted by the spark. This light is analyzed to detect the gases that form before, during, and after combustion. “In our study, the spark plug emits sparks every 10 milliseconds, or 100 pulses per second; the light gives us information about the gases that form at the moment of the explosion within these intervals. Our objective is to help reduce ethanol consumption and the emissions of polluting gases, although these are lower than the emissions of gasoline-fueled engines.”

The research conducted by Amorim’s team was funded through an agreement between FAPESP and the State of Minas Gerais Research Foundation (Fapemig), as part of a project linked to the FAPESP Program for Research on Bioenergy (Bioen). The research team is comprised of researchers from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) and from the Physics Department at the Aeronautics Technology Institute (ITA), where the researcher from CTBE began his research work on ethanol-fueled engines. Since the start of the study, Bosch – the manufacturer of the spark plugs and automotive fuel systems, which pioneered the development of the dual-fuel system – has helped by supplying the material. Bosch is now exploring the possibility of setting up a partnership to open a research lab at CTBE for research on the burning of ethanol. Bosch has also partnered a combustion-related project with the Mahle company, a manufacturer of engine parts. Mahle’s plant is in the city of Jundiaí (São Paulo State).

A deeper understanding of engines fueled by ethanol requires a better understanding of the wearing out and attrition of the engine parts. “Even though they have evolved significantly, dual fuel engines running on ethanol wear out more, because ethanol has a lower lubricating capacity than gasoline,” says professor Amilton Sinatora, from the Polytechnic School (Poli) of the University of São Paulo (USP). “We began to focus on this issue some years ago and published academic papers. We were motivated by articles published in trade magazines, such as 4 Rodas, on wearing out problems in the engine rings and valves, for example,” says the professor. Sinatora then began organizing a project in partnership with Mahle’s technology center.

Droplets from the explosion
The project, in the pipeline since 2009, was approved by FAPESP in 2011. Other partners were brought in: Fiat, Volkswagen, Renault and Petrobras. The latter is involved in the study to develop new lubricants to deal with the effect of the simultaneous use of different lubricants on dual-fuel engines. “In the last few years, the tendency has been to manufacture smaller, lighter and less polluting engines. Now we´re focusing on engines that will undergo less wear from ethanol.” The importance of the research also lies in the fact that there are no lengthy studies on ethanol-fueled dual-fuel engines being conducted in other countries. “Research studies by other countries began three years ago,” he says. Sinatora is coordinating the project with the help of teams from companies and from two universities: the Federal University of ABC, with professor Humberto Yoshimura, and the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with professor Francisco Marques.

Measuring the size of the spray droplets in ethanol flames by means of laser techniques is part of another project related to ethanol-fueled engines. The aim of this project is to analyze biofuel’s new combustion possibilities. “This will be a basic research project to study ethanol combustion,” says professor Guenther Carlos Krieger Filho, from Poli-USP. The project he coordinates is part of the Bioen program and is the result of a cooperation agreement for technological development between FAPESP, Vale S.A, the State of Pará Research Foundation (Fapespa) and Fapemig. This project is scheduled to be concluded in 2015.

“These studies are very important because the dual-fuel engine lies halfway between gasoline-fueled engines and engines running on ethanol in terms of adjustments,” says engineer Waldemar Christofoletti, a member of the light vehicles committee of SAE Brasil, an association of automotive and aerospace engineers. In his opinion, the dual-fuel system is very good, but is far from being an efficient ethanol-fueled engine. “I believe that the ratio could drop from 30% in terms of the difference in consumption to 15% at most. To this end, it is necessary to include software and hardware, or physical and electronic components that form the fuel injection system,” says Christofoletti.

Another factor that has aroused the interest of companies in improvements for ethanol-fueled engines is the federal government’s Program for the Fostering of Technological Innovation and Expansion of the Production Chain of Automotive Vehicles (Inovar-Auto), launched last April. The program will grant a discount on excise tax (IPI) as of January 2013. Automobile and car part manufacturers will qualify for this tax rebate if they prove that they invest in technological development and energy efficiency.

Seeds of the assai fruit tree

Assai, the fruit of the Euterpe oleracea palm tree, is used to make juice, smoothies and ice cream. Now, recent studies have shown that it can be used to produce natural, renewable plastic to make bone prostheses, especially for the skull. Only the seeds are used for this purpose. This novelty was announced by a team of researchers headed by chemical engineer Rubens Maciel Filho, a professor at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). The assai is native to the North of Brazil. The assai plastic was shown to have the same characteristics as those of petroleum-based polyurethane. In vitro tests have shown that the material is biocompatible and contains excellent mechanical and biological properties.

“According to recent research, the assai fruit has anti-oxidizing, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, among other features of interest in bioapplications,” Maciel explains. He is the coordinator of the Biomanufacturing Institute (Biofabris), one of the National Science and Technology Institutes (INCT), based in the school of Chemical Engineering (FEQ) at Unicamp. The research studies began in 2009 and the new polymer, which gave rise to a patent request, is the result of the master’s degree and doctoral studies of researcher Laís Gabriel, both of which were conducted under Maciel’s guidance.

Mechanical engineer André Jardini, a researcher at Biofabris, says that polyurethane is extensively used to manufacture orthopedic prostheses because it is compatible with live tissues. “In addition, it doesn’t release toxic substances when it is implanted,” he says. “There is another advantage of plant-originated polyurethane, which is the low cost of the raw material. This material is comparable to a bioceramic cranium prosthesis, which costs, on average, R$ 120 thousand. We believe that producing a similar prosthesis from assai will cost about five times less.”

The first step of the new material’s production process is to extract the fruit pulp with a special machine. Consumption of assai in the city of Belem generates 350 tons a day of pulped material (seeds and bagasse). “A humid mass and seeds covered in fibers and non-soluble particles are the left-overs,” explains professor Carmen Gilda Tavares Dias, from the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), who provided the pulped samples used by the researchers from Biofabris. “This biomass is put in a dryer to remove the dry seeds.”

Latticed prosthesis

The production of polyurethane comes after this step. Assai polyurethane is made from a substance called polyol, which is extracted from the seed. A chemical compound comprised of isocyanate (a viscous liquid) and hydrogen are added and placed inside a reactor. The next step is to add nanoparticles of hydroxyapatite, a substance comprised mostly of calcium phosphate, the main compound of bones, is absorbed by the body. Assai polymer is the final product; it is a porous, rigid foam that facilitates bone growth. According to the researchers, this material is more suitable for implants and prosthesis in parts of the body that do not require major mechanical effort, such as the skull and the face. “In the case of a prosthesis for a femur head, for example, it is better to use tougher materials, such as titanium,” says Jardini.

If approved in the clinical tests, the biopolyurethane developed at Biofabris with funding from FAPESP and from the National Council of Scientific and Technical Development (CNPq) could become a quick and specific alternative for creating prostheses or bone implants. Treatment can be customized, according to the needs of each patient. Based on a CAT scan of the injured area, processed by the InVesalius software (see Pesquisa FAPESP issue 148), developed by the Renato Archer Information Technology Center (CTI), in Campinas, it will be possible to manufacture a customized prosthesis. Jardini explains that the first step of this customization is to do the segmentation, by separating the soft tissue (skin, muscles, arteries) from the hard tissue (bone). “The next step is to produce a three-dimensional image of the hard tissue to show the missing part. Then, through mirroring, we ‘draw’ the prosthesis. The last step is to send this information to rapid prototyping equipment; this equipment will produce the identical anatomical prosthesis, layer by layer, of the missing bone.”

The area of biomaterials and biomanufacturing is a field of research that has been growing worldwide. “The field of biopolymers or polymeric biomaterials is quite extensive, due to the wide variety of plastics, such as acrylic, polyethylene, polypropylene, and PVC,” says Luís Alberto dos Santos, a professor at the Biomaterials Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). “Research studies have focused on two kinds of polymers: those with high mechanical resistance, placed in widely used areas (backbone, plates, screws), and absorbable polymers, that don’t have to be removed surgically and can be used to release drugs and antibiotics.”

Santos says that the word biopolymer has two broad meanings. “It can be a biomaterial for biomedical use or a polymer obtained from biological materials that is not necessarily used in human beings,” he explains. Concerning his own studies, Santos says that he is working on the development of a plastic derived from lactic acid, found for instance in meat or in milk and used for sutures and absorbable implants. Sodium alginate, derived from seaweed, is another biopolymer that we are working on,” he adds. “This material is a hydrogel that absorbs huge amounts of water; it can be used to cover the injuries of burn patients and diabetics, and in diapers and tampons. In addition, it can be used as support for cell culture.” The two research projects have resulted in submitting requests for patents.

Brazilian solar house design: 47 square meters powered by sunlight

Functioning exclusively on photovoltaic panels capable of converting sunlight into electricity, a 47 square meter residence was designed by Brazilian researchers for the Solar Decathlon – Europe 2012, an international competition that will bring together international teams on September 20 in Madrid, Spain. The Brazilian house consisting of a kitchen, living rooms, bathroom, bedroom and balcony is called Ekó House from the Tupi-Guarani language, where ekó means “a way of life.” Team Brazil brings together the students and teachers that were involved in this initiative, from various fields, such as architecture, urban planning, and civil, mechanical, electrical, sanitary and environmental engineering. A prototype of the house is being installed at the University of São Paulo (USP) Electrical Energy Institute, which manages the project together with the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). The development of the prototype began in 2010 and is part of an agreement between USP and Eletrobras and coordinated by Professor. Adnei Melges de Andrade, PhD. “This project aims to develop technologies that result in lower environmental impact,” says Andrade. At the Solar Decathlon, the proposals are evaluated in 10 categories that represent different areas, such as architecture, engineering, energy efficiency, comfort, communication, innovation and sustainability (more on this topic in issue 167 of Pesquisa FAPESP). The participating teams developed their respective home projects during the 20 months that preceded the competition. About 150 projects were produced, with details of the construction and systems used in the homes.

Varela: standing out for research on electrochemical reactions for energy conversion

At the end of this month, chemical engineer Hamilton Varela, a professor at the Chemistry Institute of the University of São Paulo in São Carlos (IQSC-USP), will receive the Ertl Award, of the Ertl Center for Electrochemistry and Catalysis, in Gwangju, South Korea. This initial granting of the award will recognize great contributions carried out at the institute. The only Brazilian among the founding members of the center, Hamilton Varela has been responsible for the field of Complex Kinetics since 2010, focusing on electrochemical reactions related to energy conversion systems (see Pesquisa FAPESP 
issue 165). He has published over 50 articles in indexed journals including a recent cover article for PCCP, a journal published by the Royal Chemistry Society, United Kingdom. The Ertl Center was founded and led by Gerhard Ertl, winner of the 2007 Nobel Chemistry Prize. Ertl headed the Physical Chemistry department of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin, when Hamilton Varela was studying for his doctorate. “Besides being an important figure in Surface Science and Complex Kinetics, Ertl is an example of a scientific manager and leader. Working under his leadership was very important in my career and receiving an award named after him is very special,” says Varela. Between 2005 and 2007, he was supported by FAPESP by means of its Young Researchers in Emerging Centers program. The award will be presented during the Ertl Symposium on Surface and Interface Chemistry, from June 24to 27, in Stuttgart, Germany.

Two of these buoys, manufactured for Petrobras, will mostly be used to measure currents and waves in the pre-salt layer region

The development of two buoys to monitor meteorological and ocean conditions will provide Brazil with the technology required to conduct offshore studies and oceanographic operations. For the first time, this kind of equipment will be made in Brazil. The two projects will be developed by Ambidados – Soluções em Monitoramento Ambiental, a company based in Rio de Janeiro. One project will be developed in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), with funding from Petrobras and the other, in partnership with the University of São Paulo (USP), with FAPESP support. The launch of USP’s buoy at sea will be one of the first missions of Alpha Crucis, the recently-acquired oceanography ship.

Wilsa Atella, one of the Ambidados partners, explains that these oceanographic buoys will collect valuable meteorological data and monitor the offshore marine environment. The buoys have two sensors that measure, for example, wind speed, rainfall intensity, air humidity, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure, concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂), air and ocean temperature, salinity, currents and waves. To this end, the buoys will be moored at a specific point in the ocean, from where they will transmit the information collected by satellite, which will then relay this to a computer system, and then it will be put on the internet. “Clients who use this information include ports, offshore companies, and researchers involved in monitoring-related projects,” says Wilsa.

Oil platforms
The meteorological-oceanographic buoy (BMO) is a cylinder-shaped object, with a 2.5 meter diameter; 1.20 meters high, it weighs 400 kilos. Development began in 2010, at the request of the Leopoldo Américo Miguez de Mello R&D Center (Cenpes) of Petrobras. “This buoy is important for offshore meteorological and oceanographic monitoring in deep waters, to which oil drilling platforms owned by Petrobras and by other companies are relocating,” says Wilsa. She adds that, at first, two buoys will be made. One has already been delivered to Petrobras and is scheduled to be taken to sea this year. The other will be ready in September.

Atlas-B, another buoy in the process of being concluded by Ambidados, was developed in partnership with the Oceanography Institute (IO) of USP. According to professor Edmo Campos, of the IO Department of Physical, Chemical, and Geological Oceanography, the idea behind this buoy arose in 2004, after the south of the Brazil was hit by the Catarina hurricane, in March of that year. This event made it clear that Brazilian meteorology was not prepared to predict such an event, which requires knowledge on the conditions of the sea where the hurricane begins and the average temperature of the ocean, all the way down from 100 to 200 meters.

According to Campos, the development of Atlas-B has two main objectives. One is of a meteorological nature: to improve weather forecasts and become familiar with the conditions at sea near the region where the buoy will be moored. The other is to establish a time-based series of such forecasts, to keep track of possible climate changes. “This is a pioneering project in Brazil,” says the researcher from USP. “Our country has always been well known for coastal oceanography. Now we have built a system to monitor ocean and atmospheric conditions in offshore waters. In addition, for the first time, we are doing the entire process – designing, building, launching and maintaining the buoy.”

The initial plan was to purchase Atlas buoys, the same that are being used in the Pirata project, a joint effort of the United States, Brazil and France. The objective of this project is to monitor the waters of the tropical Atlantic Ocean region, between South America and Africa, from a latitude of 20º South (more or less around the region of the capital city of Vitória, State of Espírito Santo) to a latitude of 20º North (the region of the Caribbean). Sixteen buoys are moored in this space; they were made in the US for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). “Instead of selling the buoys to us, the Americans suggested that we manufacture our own and make them identical to the Atlas buoys,” says Campos. “They transferred the technology to us, so we could copy their buoys. This is why we refer to the buoy we are currently manufacturing as the Atlas-B.”

Soon thereafter, Campos and his team started looking for an engineering firm able to manufacture Atlas-B. They contacted Ambidados and signed the contract in March of 2011. “We provided the company with all the specs and the company began work on developing the buoy,” says Campos. “FAPESP gave us a grant of R$ 500 thousand under its climate change program, a project coordinated by professor Tércio Ambrizzi, of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG), of USP; the National Institute of Science and Technology – Climate Change provided us with a R$ 500 thousand grant, and the National Scientific and Technological Development Council (CNPq) gave us another R$ 500 thousand.”

The Atlas-B is made from the same material – fiberglass, steel and aluminum – as the BMO. Both are approximately the same size, but their shape is slightly different. The Atlas-B has a toroidal shape (resembling a life jacket or a tire). The part that will stay on the surface has a small tower, about two meters high. Sensors such as rain gauges will be installed in this tower, to measure the amount of rain; other devices will include anemometers, to measure wind speed and direction; spectroradiometers, to check solar radiation; GPS; thermometers; and gauges to measure the relative humidity of the air and concentrations of CO_2.

The underwater part of the buoy will also be equipped with a smaller, upside down tower. A cable, measuring four thousand meters, will come out of the lower part of the tower and its end will be anchored to the bottom of the sea. The buoy will be moored at a specific point on the surface, in the region where the Catarina hurrican formed, 600 kilometers off the Cape of Santa Marta, on the coast of the State of Santa Catarina. Sensors will be installed on the first 5,600 meters of cable, starting from the buoy. This equipment will include fluorometers, to measure fluorescence, and spectroradiometers, to check the solar radiation that penetrates the ocean, as well as instruments that measure ocean salinity and temperature.

Via satellite
All the data collected by the sensors installed in the buoy will be managed by a computer system called Datalogue, developed by Campos’ team at USP’s Oceanography Institute. “After being downloaded into Datalogue, the information will be transmitted to a transmission module that will relay the information to the Argos satellite system, which collects environmental data from autonomous platforms all over the world,” Campos explains. The data will be relayed from the satellites to the Internet.”

According to the researcher from USP, two Atlas-B buoys will be built in the beginning. The first one is nearly ready and will be launched from the Alpha Crucis ship on November 1. To this end, USP’s Center for the Support of Research on Climate Change provided R$ 200 thousand. “The first buoy will remain in operation for one year,” says Campos. “After that, another identical buoy will replace it. Our expectation is that this arrangement will last for a long time so that we can rely on uninterrupted, time-based, long term series related to climate studies. The R$ 1.5 million funds granted by FAPESP, CNPq and INCT will be used to build the two buoys. The first two buoys will enable us to prove that we are able to manufacture, moor, and operate buoys identical to the Atlas buoys used in the Pirata project.”

Besides the BMO and the Atlas-B, Ambidados has developed a third product, called Ondaleta, an instrument to monitor tides and waves in the ports. The device is comprised of a PVC box that houses its electronic systems and a pressure sensor, along with a copper tube that extends out into the water. The Ondaleta can measure the height of tides and waves and the time between each wave. It is connected to another unit that can be installed, for example, at a shipping company. “Communication between the two units can be in real time via radio or optic fiber,” says Wilsa. “We have also developed specific software that enables the client to configure the sensor according to his needs.”

The patent of the Ondaleta device belongs to Cenpes, of Petrobras, and was licensed to Ambidados in 2010. Ambidados pays royalties to the oil company. “At first, the device was merely a prototype,” says Wilsa. “We developed the product and the on-line interface commercially, with our own funds and funding from Cenpes. We have already sold five units to companies.” Ambidados is a technological enterprise founded in 2006 by researchers from the Ocean Engineering Program of Coppe. In 2007, the company installed itself in Coppe’s incubator. In April of this year, the company moved to the Rio de Janeiro Technological Complex on the UFRJ campus in Fundão island. “Our main clients are Petrobras and Vale,” says Wilsa. “At present, we employ 31 people and we expect this year’s revenues to amount to R$ 3 million.”

From left to right, Regina Bronstein, Sandoval Carneiro, Roberto Dal’Agnol, Cláudia Diniz, Luiz Eugênio Mello, José Oswaldo Siqueira and Hugo Resende, all of whom are linked to Vale Technological Institute

In seventy years, Vale grew from a small mining company in the town of Itabira, State of Minas Gerais, to the world’s leading global iron ore producer, and the world’s second biggest producer of nickel. With business operations in 38 countries on five continents, the company is also involved in the logistics business, which encompasses railways, port terminals, cabotage, energy, and fertilizers. This outstanding position is based on enormous investments in state-of-the-art technology and in research and innovation. Clients’ immediate demands are supported by three Research & Development centers – two in Brazil and one in Canada. Other long-term research projects in several areas are conducted at the Vale Technological Institute (ITV), founded in 2009.

The first conversations on the creation of a non-profit institute began in 2007. However, the project only gained momentum at the end of 2008, when neurophysiologist Luiz Eugênio Mello was hired to take on the position of executive director of ITV. At that time, Mello was dean of undergraduate studies at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). “Last year, Vale invested US$ 1.7 billion in R&D. Of this amount, nearly R$ 23 million went to ITV,” says Mello, who is also a former assistant coordinator of FAPESP’s Scientific Director’s Office. In 2011, the mining company’s net profit came to US$ 22.8 billion, a 32% increase vs. 2010.

Ever since it was created, ITV has entered into 97 R&D agreements and has established partnerships with 36 national and international institutions, such as Embrapa, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Switzerland’s Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, among others. The institute also has partnerships with FAPESP and with the research foundations of the States of Minas Gerais and Pará. These entities have provided funds of R$ 120 million, allocated for research projects in the fields of mining, energy, and ecoefficiency.

Two research units with different research objectives – Sustainable Development, in Belem, State of Pará and Mining, in Ouro Preto, State of Minas Gerais – conduct research studies in the fields of climate change, water management, sustainability in the mining industry, biodiversity, energy, and technology for environmental monitoring. These fields were defined as priorities at workshops organized by Vale in 2010 and attended by researchers from several institutions, who are experts in the various fields of study.

The ITV Sustainable Development unit is headed by Luiz Carlos de Lima Silveira, a physician and neuroscientist. He took on the position of scientific director of the unit in 2010. Currently, 33 researchers from a variety of fields of study are doing research work on six different topics: biodiversity, focused on soil microbiology and plant biotechnology; climate change; water management; bioenergy and photosynthesis; sustainable mining; and environmental monitoring. Two other fields – sustainable architecture and urban planning in the Amazon Region and sustainomics – defined as the science of sustainable development – make up the other topics.

Silveira, who created the postgraduate program in neurosciences and cell biology at the Federal University of Pará (Ufpa), defines his current job as a continuation of his academic experience. “I gained administrative experience during my career as a researcher and implemented two research groups – one focusing on the basic sciences and the other, on the neuroscience of tropical medicine,” he says. “These credentials enabled me to take on my current job,” says Silveira, who has a medical degree from Ufpa, a master’s degree and a doctorate in biophysics from the University of Rio do Janeiro (UFRJ) and a post-doctoral degree in neuroscience from Oxford University, England.

Urban phenomenon
In his opinion, the creation of a research group in Brazil requires a number of skills, especially in connection with the Amazon Region, which has many regional disparities and needs to be integrated with the country’s other regions. At ITV in Belém, more than 10 research projects are currently being conducted in collaboration with local institutions, such as Ufpa and Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, and international institutions, such as Belgium’s Flanders Biotechnology Institute and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science.

The choice of Belém as one of the physical locations of the research network was a strategic decision; the city is the capital of the State of Pará, where Vale has a huge iron ore mining operation in the Carajás mountain range. Belém has two million inhabitants. The mines in Carajás alone account for 36% of the iron ore currently produced by Vale. In 2011, Vale’s iron ore production totaled 322.6 million tons. “Belém is a big city that lies geographically and temporally on the frontier between the Amazon Region and the Atlantic Ocean; the region’s enormous biodiversity has to be studied,” says Silveira. Two research projects are at an advanced stage. One is the Urbis project, that focuses on urban planning and is dedicated to the urban phenomenon in the western part of the Amazon Region. The other focuses on the climate-related impact of Vale’s mining operations.

The Urbis project is coordinated by Ana Cláudia Cardoso, along with space engineer Antonio Miguel Monteiro, from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe). “Our plan is to work on a multidisciplinary vision of the urban phenomenon of Pará,” says Ana Claudia, who has a degree in architecture and urban planning from Ufpa, a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Brasília (UnB) and a doctorate in architecture from Oxford Brookes University, in England. The researchers want to understand how major economic activities, such as mining, animal husbandry, and timber exploitation are influencing not only the capital city but also the medium and small towns in forest conversion areas and the villages along highways and river banks. Project participants include economists, urban planners and ecologists from such institutions as the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, etc. They will use specific tools to analyze occupation levels in the state. “Migration rates in some municipal regions of Pará are four times higher than in other regions of Brazil because of the investment dynamics of Vale and the influence of farming and cattle ranching,” says Ana Claudia.

The research team working on climate changes is comprised of a physicist and two meteorologists. It is coordinated by Luiz Gylvan Meira Filho, former president of the Brazilian Space Agency. Luís Antônio Lacerda Aímola has been a member of this team ever since he left Israel to move to Belém. In Israel, Luís Antônio worked as a researcher in the field of climate change and modeling. He has a degree in physics from Unicamp, a doctorate in environmental sciences from the University of São Paulo (USP) and a post-doctorate from the Weizmann Institute. “I was attracted by the company’s innovative vision, which led it to create a center of excellence in research, focused on the field of sustainable development, and by the possibility of conducting long-term research projects,” says Aímola.

Climate Events
Since May of last year, he has worked on a project that seeks to integrate physical aspects, ranging from possible changes in the tropical region’s rainfall regime due to global warming, to economic aspects in climate models. “If significant changes occur, they can change the dynamics of the Amazon Forest,” he says. As mining depends on rainfall regimes, mining operations can be jeopardized by extreme climate events. “I am working on the physical aspects of climate as well as on possible future climatic effects on the economies of tropical regions.” One of the meteorologists on the team is studying the impact of climate change on Vale’s operations in the eastern Amazon Region. The other meteorologist is drawing up a climate model for the Amazon Region.

ITV Mineração is being set up in the city of Ouro Preto, State of Minas Gerais. The priority fields are infrastructure, metallurgy, mineral processing and exploitation, prospection and geology and water resources. One of the projects is coordinated by agronomic engineer José Oswaldo Siqueira, who is also a retired professor from the Federal University of Lavras (Ufla). He was hired by ITV a year ago to work on technology for the manufacturing of fertilizers. “Agriculture starts with mining,” he says. The raw materials extracted from the rocks are the basis for producing fertilizers. “Our biggest challenge is to bring the requirements of agriculture and food production to a mining company,” he says. Siqueira has a degree from the School of Agriculture of Lavras, currently named Ufla, a master’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Florida, and a post-doctorate from the University of Michigan, in the United States. To this end, he says it is necessary to seek new technological processes to increase the efficiency of the extraction of raw materials and thus obtain high-quality, environmentally-friendly products.

“Most of the technology used to make fertilizers nowadays was developed between 1950 and 1970,” he says. The stagnation is due to the lack of interest on the part of the developed countries, a consequence of farm policies and the historically low prices of this chemical commodity. However, this situation has changed in the last five years. The only solution for Brazil in this respect is to increase the technological competence of the entire production chain.

Mining Frontier
“This is a strategic issue, because the country imports approximately two-thirds of the fertilizers it consumes.” Phosphate, for example, is essential for agricultural production, but the worldwide reserves of this mineral are extremely limited. Vale produces fertilizers such as phosphate and potassium, but its strategy is to become a major producer of raw materials for fertilizers on a global scale. To this end, the company has invested heavily in Brazil and in Africa, Peru, Argentina and Canada; these investments entailed acquiring mines and companies. In addition to fertilizer production technology, ITV Mineração is working on another eleven lines of research, including the mining frontier of the ocean floor. The research is being conducted in partnership with Ufla, USP, and universities such as Australia’s Queensland University.

After working for 25 years at Embraer, aeronautics engineer Hugo Resende accepted the invitation – extended in October of last year – to organize a department with a focus on an incubator for technology start-ups, linked to the ITV. “The challenge is to identify new, technology-based business start-up opportunities based on research studies conducted not only at ITV but also at Vale’s other research centers,” says Resende, who has a degree from the Aeronautics Technology Institute (ITA), plus a master’s degree and a doctorate from Stanford University. At Embraer, he worked on aircraft development and on aeronautical software. Prior to taking on the position of chief scientist, responsible for partnerships with universities and for the identification of projects of interest to the company, he worked as a technological development manager.

He accepted Vale’s invitation because he envisioned a new challenge. “Identifying opportunities and transforming them into business was a missing element in my professional experience,” says Resende, who also held several positions on the executive board of the National Association of R&D at Innovative Companies (Anpei), having presided over this association in 2006. The start-ups incubator is expected to go into operation in 2013. This activity is inserted in the model – the MIT model – chosen as a reference for the process that created ITV. “MIT’s focus is to transfer technology to companies and to train entrepreneurs,” says Mello.

Immediate Response
Three big laboratories are responsible for finding the solutions for technological needs requiring immediate responses. The Mineral Development Center (CDM) and the Ferrous Technology Center (CTF) are in Minas Gerais. The third laboratory, dedicated to nickel and base metals technology, is in Canada. Founded in 1965, CDM is considered the company’s first technological leap forward because of the development of its own technology for processing minerals with low iron ore content. The company developed this technology in the 1960s, enabling Vale to extend the life of its mines. CTF, created in 2007, conducts research studies on the entire iron ore chain, from the mine to steel. “Our work focuses on the steel industry,” says metallurgical engineer Rogério Carneiro, general manager of CTF. Carneiro has an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree from UFMG. “Several laboratories and mathematical models that simulate steel manufacturing processes enable us to develop solutions for our clients,” says Carneiro, who has worked for Vale since 2001. Before joining Vale, he worked for 17 years at a Brazilian steel company, coordinating research on iron ore, sintering, and blast furnaces. Of CTF lab’s 120 employees and contractors, 30 are researchers with master’s degrees or doctorates, including metallurgical engineers, mining engineers, and geologists. One can test items ranging from different processing routes to the behavior of the iron ore in steel mills. “CTF has equipment that simulates a steel mill,” says Carneiro.

The innovative technologies applied to the production of iron ore are what distinguish Vale and ensure the company’s outstanding position in global terms. An example of such innovative technologies is the transportation of iron ore by a structure comprised of bulldozers and mobile stone crushers rather than trucks. This mode of transportation is part of a project for Carajás called S11D. The bulldozers and stone crushers will extract and transport the iron ore to the processing unit. “The processing of iron ore, based on its own natural humidity, with no added water, is another technology that will minimize environmental impact,” says mining engineer Stephen Potter, director of Integrated Planning and Technological Development at Vale. Potter has an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree from London’s Royal School of Mines. “Besides reducing water consumption, this technology will allow us to recover the mined ore at the mine,” says Potter, an Englishman who has worked in the mining industry for 20 years and has been with Vale since 2009. The finer particles, eliminated in the conventional process, will be mixed into the end product. In addition, it will no longer be necessary to discard the waste from the process into a dam specifically built for this end, as is the current practice. “The fact that no loaded trucks will be moving around the mine will lower the impact on the environment.” Vale has recently been granted the preliminary environmental license to implement the project.

Application of cassava gel on strawberries

Changes in eating habits, a lack of time in the day-to-day routine of those who live in our major cities and the search for consumption without waste have led to a an increase in studies into fresh foods that can last longer on the shelf or in the refrigerator. New initiatives are arising in the form of packaging, using biodegradable biofilms and edible coverings that are taking shape in the Faculty of Food Engineering at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). In the research groups of professors Miriam Dupas Hubinger and Florência Cecilia Menegalli the challenge is to come up with cheap, practical ad non-polluting packaging that is easy to produce.

Since 2000 Florência’s group has been concentrating on developing biodegradable packaging and edible coverings for dried fruit. Miriam and the postgraduate students she supervises have been specializing in coverings for fresh fruit and salad vegetables, the so-called minimally processed products. “Our coverings bring together two benefits: practicality for those who are going to consume the product, since the fruit is peeled, cut up and ready to eat, and a healthy appearance,” says Miriam. She explains that their coverings act like a barrier, conserving the fruit’s moisture and mineral salts and protecting it from microorganisms and contact with the air.

Simplicity was one of the reasons that led Miriam to work with flour-based coverings made from cassava starch in the form of a gel. The concentration of this material needed to form a covering is smaller than that used to make a solid film, similar to plastic, which needs the addition of plasticizing agents to remain flexible. “We favored cost, availability and ease of preparation of the covering, with the flour that becomes a gel at low concentrations and does not change the flavor of the food,” explains Miriam.

“The coverings need to be resistant to the oxygen in the air, to steam and to microorganisms, without forgetting the main thing: sensory acceptance by the consumer.” The professor adds a mixture of two natural components, citric acid, found in oranges, for example, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to the polysaccharides of the flour that is the basis of the covering. They are added before immersing the fruit in the covering, thus inhibiting enzymatic activity, which is one of the factors that leads to food going dark on contact with air. The food is then left for the liquid to drain off at room temperature.

The cassava flour covering solution creates a barrier, which is largely impermeable to air, but does not protect the product from the water vapor that is in the atmosphere. The resource found for protecting the food was an emulsified covering or a double layer that mixes cassava flour with lipids such as carnauba or bees wax, for example. The results using this strategy were encouraging.

Correct activity
Strawberries covered with cassava starch, without any antimicrobial agent, lasted 12 days, when the normal is 5. In the case of peeled pineapple, which normally has a shelf-life of 4 days, survival time was also around 12 days. Sliced mango with a cassava covering lasted as long as 15 days; normally it gets dark in just 2 days. Marcela Chiumarelli, a student who collaborated with the study of the coverings explains that “the handling of minimally processed products is still recent in the country and many markets and wholesalers do not carry out the activity correctly.”

Florência and her group are testing various compositions for producing efficient biofilms in the laboratory for different functions, such as resistance, flexibility and edibility. Among the ingredients used are unconventional sources for the production of flour and cereal starch, such as amaranth, which originates in the Andes region in South America, and more recently banana, in a film that is reinforced with cellulose nanofibers obtained from the skin of the fruit itself. They are also using montmorillonite-based nanocompounds, a mineral clay found in the sub-soil in some regions of Minas Gerais. Colorless films with reduced water solubility were produced from quinoa starch, also a native plant of the Andes.

The professor clarifies that the experiments with nanocompounds are more recent and complex. “We use flour from the banana and canna indica, which is an ornamental plant. We isolate the biopolymers and we produce a cellulosic fiber from the waste. Microfiber made from the nanoparticles makes the film less permeable and less soluble,” says Florência. This product, however, is going to take more time to reach the consumer. “We can’t look for commercial agreements because we first need to see what effect there is on humans when they eat nanoparticles.” Another study by the group is in the area of coverings for dried fruit made from biopolymers that are applied before drying. They have already been tested on star fruit, figs and persimmons.

In the United States, Nature Seal is commercially producing edible coverings that, when applied to the surface of fruit and salad vegetables, keep the appearance of pieces of apple clear, without any loss of flavor or vitamins for more than 10 days, for example. The work of Miriam’s group, particularly its research with strawberries, has attracted the attention of an important snack-bar chain in the United States and  a large company in Belgium that sells cherries, raspberries and blueberries. A billionaire market is forming because fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and Jack in the Box have made their menus greener, by adding salads and fresh fruit; which makes them potential customers for biofilms.

Tiny, needle-shaped wollastonite crystals

The evolution of electronic microscopes, which are increasingly being used, has resulted in countless benefits for human beings, especially in the field of health care. However, electronic microscopes have also fueled knowledge on metal and ceramic materials. In addition, they have unveiled the often spectacular forms of tiny samples placed under their lens and mapped by means of electron beams. These beautiful images can be colored artificially on a computer screen and thus lead to a better understanding of the samples’ structure and composition, especially of new materials developed by science researchers.

In line with this reasoning, which combines knowledge and beauty, professor Edgar Dutra Zanotto, coordinator of the Vitreous Materials Laboratory (LaMaV) of the Materials Engineering Department (DEMa) of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), has compiled the book Cristais em vidro – Ciência e arte. The book was launched to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the LaMaV. As a result, many of the 50 thousand scientific and artistic photo micrographs generated during these years are now available to readers outside the academic community.

The focus of the research studies conducted at the laboratory headed by Zanotto concentrates on the development of new types of glass, on the study of the chemical and physical properties of glass, and on in-depth research of the kinetics and crystallization mechanisms of vitreous materials, essential for the development of vitroceramics. This material, first synthesized 59 years ago, has a combination of special properties, such as strength and toughness, transparency, very low thermal expansion coefficient, chemical durability, and low or zero porosity. This is why the material has been used in a wide array of applications, ranging from kitchen utensils, especially stovetops on electrical stoves, to high-tech products, such as huge mirrors for telescopes, computer hard disk substrates, and artificial teeth.

Vitroceramics is the result of the control of crystallization, a phenomenon that occurs when glass, mixed with a nucleation agent – an additive such as titanium oxide, or phosphorus, silver or copper oxide – is submitted to high temperatures ranging from 500 to 1,100 degrees Celsius. These were the main agents that have been used ever since the LaMaV lab went into operation. In the book, Zanotto mentions that lab studies on kinetics and glass crystallization mechanisms began in 1977, while he was working on his master’s thesis, and continued during his doctorate studies. “In January 1977, I had just concluded my materials engineering course at UFSCar (…) and came across a book on vitroceramics written by Peter McMillan. I was immediately attracted to the subject. It occurred to me that this new kind of material could be the topic of major research work in the field of materials sciences and engineering, and I followed my intuition,” says Zanotto.

Thirty-five years later, LaMaV has acquired international prestige, thanks to the publication of approximately 200 scientific articles in specialized journals. It is considered as one of the seven leading centers for research on vitroceramics, and is on the same level of excellence as similar labs at Japan’s Nagaoka University, at the University of Missouri in the United States, at Jena, in Germany, and at the private research institutes run by Nippon Electric Glass, in Japan, by Corning Glass, in the United States, and by Schott Glass, in Germany. “Our studies have contributed significantly towards a better understanding of the processes that control nucleation and crystal growth in countless glass materials. In the field of science, we have described kinetic processes and have tested theoretical models. In the field of technology, we have created and improved several vitroceramics, some of which have reached the commercial stage,” says Zanotto.

Superficial nucleation of a lithium metasilicate crystal in the shape of a star fruit

“The most significant fact is that some of the leading glass manufacturers that manufacture vitroceramics have resorted to several of our articles to base the development of their products,” the researcher reports in the book. In addition to being the head of LaMaV, Zanotto is the chairman of the Nucleation, Crystallization and Vitroceramics Committee of the International Commission on Glass, the world’s leading glass research organization. Last November, Zanotto was elected as member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).

A description of the activities conducted at LaMaV shows that in the course of its existence, the lab has accounted for the education of a number of researchers with masters, doctorate, and post-doctorate degrees, and to the development of a number of vitreous materials. More specifically, these materials are glass —ceramics that imitate expensive stones, such as marble and granite; bioglass, used to manufacture artificial bones and teeth; vitroceramics derived from blast furnace slag, a major industrial waste; and bioactive materials, such as biosilicate, for dental treatment. Biosilicate has already been patented and licensed for use by a Brazilian company called Vitrovita (see Pesquisa FAPESP issue 158).

“Some of our innovations involved partnerships. An example is the bioglass used for teeth and bones, developed in partnership with the University of Florida. This material is already being marketed by American Biomaterials,” says Zanotto. LaMaV partners with a network of 30 institutions, 20 of which are international and 10 are Brazilian. LaMaV has already filed 12 patents, the latest ones in 2010 and 2011, for glass-ceramic to be used in the production of stove cooktops. Two companies have already manifested their interest in manufacturing these stovetops in Brazil. The other material is a bioactive glass- ceramic scaffold. This is a bioactive material that resembles a sponge. It can be used as support for bone cell growth,” explains LaMaV´s coordinator.

The research studies developed by Zanotto, together with professors Ana Cândida Rodrigues, Oscar Peitl and their group, have received funding from various funding agencies, such as FAPESP, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Agency for the Promotion of Post-Graduate Studies (Capes). The researcher has coordinated two major projects funded by the Foundation, namely, “Current problems related to glass crystallization,” which has already been concluded; and “Kinetic processes in glass and vitroceramics,” which is still ongoing. The projects were conducted at the 800 square-meter laboratory in São Carlos.

From Berlin*

The results of a joint action plan that the German federal government prepared in 2008 with universities, research centers and companies are beginning to appear. The objective was to expand international cooperation in science and technology, compensate for domestic limitations and encourage the use of so-called green technologies – more modern production methods that use fewer raw materials, consume less energy and do less damage to the environment than those based on the use of fossil fuels.

In the production center of the Fraunhofer Institute (IPK) in Berlin, a circular construction surrounded by transparent glass that is reminiscent of a sports’ hall filled with machinery, a young engineer shows the solid carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the form small pieces of ice, which he places in the hands of the more curious visitors from a small trowel, asking them to move it quickly from one hand to another so as not to burn themselves. This technology, he explains, illustrates the possibility of reusing CO₂, a common waste product in industrial processes and one that is already being used experimentally in the German automobile industry. He then places a painted metallic plate in a machine that fires jets of solid CO₂ in a closed glass cabin. The jets remove the paint from the plate, which in just a few minutes is clean and frozen.

Since 1986, the technology center has been home to teams from IPK, which was created in 1976, and from the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (IWF), from 1904. “We’re two institutions but we work together,” says Jens König, project manager for IPK, one of the biggest centers of applied research in Germany, with 56 laboratories throughout the country, 13,000 scientists and engineers and an annual budget of € 1.6 billion, of which € 1.4 billion comes from contracts with companies.

“We have a collaboration project with Brazil,” says König, referring to Bragecrim, the acronym for the Brazilian-German Collaborative Research Initiative on Manufacturing Technology. This program brings together some 30 universities, companies and research centers from the two countries, with the purpose of improving the precision of machine tools. Meeting together in November in Florianopolis, in the state of Santa Catarina, the coordinators of some 20 Bragecrim projects decided to continue with the program, which began 2 years ago and receives financial support from federal science and technology funding agencies from each country.

“We saw that we had neither the people, nor the time and the money to do everything we wanted to do,” recognizes Eckart Lilienthal, coordinator of the international cooperation strategy of the Ministry of Education and Research. “This strategy was discussed with representatives from all the ministries, research centers and universities in Germany. It was not introduced from the top down, because a plan like this one cannot be carried out by just one ministry. We’re advancing step by step.”

Both the traditional partners from Germany and North America, as well as those from the developing countries, like Brazil, are gaining more attention. In August, the DFG (German Scientific Research Foundation) and FAPESP renewed the collaboration agreement between the two institutions, which supports the carrying out of joint projects between the two countries for a further five years. In September, the general secretary of the German Academic Interchange Service (Daad), Dorothea Rüland, was in Rio de Janeiro to see how to attract more Brazilians and, inversely, how to send more German researchers to Brazil. Functioning since 1972, the office of Daad in Rio coordinates some 30 student and researcher interchange programs, in partnership with federal and state scientific research support agencies.

Charitè University: recovered after the war, one of the icons of German pioneering in medicine

The Germans invest heavily in science and technology. In 2009, total spending in this area was US$ 82 billion, the equivalent of 2.8% of its GDP, while in Brazil it was US$ 24 billion, or 1.19% of GDP. “Of the public federal budget, 10% is going to education and research,” says Lilienthal. Germany has a network of more than 300 universities and basic research centers, like the Max Planck institute, with 77 units, 13,000 employees, 17 Nobel Prize winners throughout its history and an annual budget of € 1.3 billion (R$ 3.1 billion). Companies (some of them huge, such as Siemens, Basf and Volkswagen) account for two thirds of the annual spending on research and development.

The interaction between companies and public research centers is intense and goes back a long way. In 1910, right after a doctor, Paul Ehrlich, noted that an arsenic product that he had synthesized after 605 attempts controlled syphilis in infected rats, the pharmaceutical company Hoechst quickly started producing the compound in amounts sufficient to carry out effectiveness and toxicity tests on human beings and after that, for extensive consumption.

The decision of the German government after the accident at Fukushima in Japan to close eight older nuclear power stations, all of them by 2022, has added to the value of green technologies, which are now a priority. Since Germans are cautious by nature,  many were still functioning, so they were not left in the dark or in the cold because of a lack of heaters (for many years nuclear power stations supplied a third of the energy consumed in the country). The 21,000 functioning wind power stations supply a third of the electricity on the coldest winter days in Germany, whose target is to generate at least 20% of its electricity via renewable energy by 2020. At the end of 2010, the renewable energy sector was at full strength and already employing 340,000 people. In 2011, the federal government, via a national campaign, promoted green (environmentally correct) production technologies, developed by companies and research centers.

There is still a lot of debate about the fact that renewable energy sources are heavily subsidized as a means of promoting consumption. “Just subsidizing is not the solution,” says Hans-Josef Fell, a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, and spokesperson on energy policies for the Green Party. “We need to combine strategies for reducing energy consumption, the production of waste and carbon dioxide emissions.”

Rutger Schlatmann, director of PVcomB, a company that develops fine films and photovoltaic materials, also believes that the best option will be a combination of different ways of producing energy. “We can have good products, but it will be useless if we don’t also have educated people who are prepared to save energy,” he says. In this area, says Iver Lauermann, a researcher from the Helmholtz materials and energy center, one of the research institutes linked to PVcomB, one of the current targets is to improve the performance of the fine films used in panels for producing solar energy and substitute a toxic component, cadmium, found in them.

“We’re engineers; we don’t talk a lot, but we like to show the machines we’re making,” says Stefan Kozielski, director of the integrated production technologies’ center of excellence, which brings together some 30 companies, 25 research institutes and 150 researchers in various buildings in the University of Aachen, in Aachen, a city in western Germany, on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands. One of the development projects is the Street Scooter, an electric car with autonomy of 130 km and a maximum speed of 130 km per hour, which should go into production on a small scale in 2012. Its price to the consumer is likely to be around € 5000.

“In 2020, 10% of all automobiles in the world will be electric, but it will be expensive,” says Lino Santacruz-Moctezuma, coordinator of communication for Autostadt, an automotive center with museums and exhibitions close to the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg. According to Lino, Volkswagen is now prioritizing the development of new models of low cost, environmentally correct, practical cars, by first of all taking advantage of its accrued knowledge of gasoline and diesel engines. The prototypes of the VW electric car, which should start being sold commercially in 2015, are already in Autostadt’s yard and move completely silently, as if they were standing still and switched off.

Electric cars and other innovative ideas are already visible in the streets of Germany

Lilienthal emphasizes an important point in the science and technology production strategy in public research centers and companies in Germany: “Activities have to be synchronized.” Efforts to link together the various initiatives are obvious. In addition to a concept, presenting the country as “the land of ideas” (in German, Land der ideen), a page on the Internet (www.research-in-germany.de) carries news and information about science and technology for researchers from companies and academic institutions.

These actions are reunifying German science, which used to be the best in the world. At the beginning of the last century, Brazilian doctors and researchers spoke and wrote German and almost every year a German scientist won the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry or medicine. The Nazis later valued health and insisted that Germans give up smoking as a way of avoiding disease, but eliminated many Jewish scientists who had not emigrated. Just in the Charité Hospital, where doctors such as Robert Kock, who identified the agent that caused tuberculosis, and Paul Ehrlich, who discovered the treatment for syphilis, worked, 145 professors were dismissed, emigrated or died in concentration camps. The Jewish doctor Otto Weisburg only escaped because he had made fundamental discoveries on the functioning of tumor cells and had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1931.

Allied bombing during the Second World War almost completely destroyed Berlin. Obviously, the research centers (and the mainly Jewish researchers) also lost their buildings and their teams, which have now been finally rebuilt. “Germans have a notable sense of purpose and team work,” observed Mexican chemist Luis Manoel Guerra, who studied in Munich from 1968 to 1971, working at night at Bayer to pay for his studies. “They didn’t ask themselves if they’d manage to rebuild the country, but how they could do it.”

Known for their organization, obsession with doing things well and for their vision of the future, but also for their inflexibility and great attachment to hierarchy, the Germans have once again made the country’s science and technology system one of the most powerful in the world. In many senses Germany is already a “land of ideas,” as the slogan proposes. A lot of innovation can already be seen by many people. Electric cars of various brands circulate in the streets of Berlin discreetly, unlike the similar vehicles that gaily circulate in the streets of Paris. The entry to the Hotel Blue, alongside Berlin Cathedral, has an immense aquarium on show that guests can also appreciate from the inside when they pass it in the elevator. One of the pleasant surprises in the store at the History Museum of Germany are the dice, which are spheres rather than cubes.

 * The journalist was a guest of the German Academic Interchange Service (Daad).

Furnace which received wood for burning

In Brazil back in 1885, “everyone” knew how to weave, observed a foreign consular official at the time, according to a 1976 essay by the North American historian and Brazil specialist Warren Dean. This habit came from a time when there were few spinning and weaving factories in the country, so that most families had to be conversant with this art in order to make their own clothes. In England, the textile factories of the eighteenth century used hydraulic energy and got a major boost in 1785, when they were the first ones to use steam-driven engines – the stars of the Industrial Revolution. In Brazil, one of the most successful applications of steam engines was at the São Luiz textile mill, in 1869. Founded in the city of Itu, in inner-state São Paulo, it was the first company in the state that could be called modern and it became a model for other similar ventures. São Luiz’s main contribution was using a steam engine that operated machinery for de-seeding the cotton, spinning it and weaving it. “Because they didn’t rely on hydraulic energy, the factories with the new technique could be built anywhere, it no was no longer necessary to put them next to rivers,” explains the historian Anicleide Zequini, from the ‘Convenção de Itu’ Republican Museum, an extension of USP’s Museu Paulista (Paulista Museum), who specializes in industrial archeology. “Another important consequence was that it showed that remunerated free work functioned well and that slave labor was unnecessary in the industry that was beginning to take shape.”

The establishment of textile factories in the Itu and Sorocaba areas – most of them using hydraulic energy – was due to the need to manufacture textiles and sacking, but also as a consequence of the American Civil War (1861-65), which got in the way of exporting raw cotton to Europe. The Englishmen from the São Paulo Railway company, which connected the São Paulo plateau to the port of Santos, saw Brazil as an alternative source of the product for importing and they encouraged cotton planting.

São Luiz had five founders. The largest shareholder, Luiz Antonio de Anhaia, was also the project’s creator. Everything was purchased in the United States from the Lidgerwood Company, including the  mill’s project, the machinery, the planning and the training of the workers. With its 15-meter high smoke stack, the mill began operating with 62 machines, of which 24 were looms. The boiler produced the steam to operate the spindle of the transmission system which crossed the room where the looms were installed. Each loom was connected to this spindle by a belt. When it spun, the spindle moved the belt, which triggered the looms that in turn were operated by the factory workers. “In 1873, 24 women, 10 men and 18 boys worked there,” says Anicleide. Production was earmarked for the clothing of slaves and rural workers, and for sacking for salt and coffee.

In 1903, the factory also began to run on electric energy. It was in operation up until 1982 and was registered as an historic site. It now belongs to the Pacheco Jordão family and is used for cultural and fashion events. Although it was important for São Paulo, São Luiz was not the first Brazilian factory to use steam engines. According to the historians Francisco Foot Hardman and Victor Leonardi in História da indústria e do trabalho no Brasil: das origens aos anos 20(History of the industrial sector and of labor in Brazil: from the beginning to the 1920s) (Global Editora, 1982), the São Pedro de Alcântara factory in Rio de Janeiro was using steam as early as 1852. In addition, in the State of Bahia, Conceição dos Mares was operating on hydraulic and steam energy back in the 1840s.

Partnership between company and Minas Gerais universities leads to software for assessing automobile dashboards

The lights on the dashboard of an automobile should not be too strong or too weak and should provide for color harmony and homogeneity. To assess these items using a scientific methodology, researchers from the federal universities of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Ouro Preto (UFOP) and from Fiat Automobiles in Betim (Minas Gerais  State), developed software that is already helping the company’s engineers to analyze the panels delivered by suppliers, based on the technical specifications of the car manufacturer. The software, which analyzes photos of the dashboards taken in one of the company’s laboratories, is part of the Master’s  research degree  of engineer Alexandre Faria, from Fiat’s Engineering Center. His supervisors were professors Arnaldo Araújo, from UFMG, and David Menotti, from UFOP. “The system functions like a human neural network, in which the software learns from information taken from a database,” says Alexandre. “We’ve developed mathematical representations for each region on the dashboard,” says David. The study was published in the scientific journal Expert Systems with Applications in March 2012.

The comfort laboratory, as it is known, covers almost 300 square meters and reproduces a boarding lounge with a finger (the walkway that leads to the airplane), assembled in the Polytechnic School [known as ‘Poli’] at USP in São Paulo, in the Thermal and Environmental Engineering Laboratory (Lete). The main part of the structure represents the cabin of a 170 or 190 jet, with 30 seats, which is installed in a pressure chamber that reproduces flight conditions. It is the only one in Brazil – and one of the few in the world – and is similar to the one in the Institute for Building Physics, part of the Fraunhofer Institutes near Munich, in Germany. “We’ll carry out integrated trials inside it to check how the parameters of cabin air pressure, noise, vibration, ergonomics, temperature and lighting influence the perception of passenger comfort,” explains Jurandir Itizo Yanagihara, coordinator of Lete and of the “Cabin comfort” project. “The objective is to improve the inside of airplanes and provide superior levels of well-being for passengers,” says Jorge Ramos, director of Technological Development at Embraer.

On board comfort has been one of the priorities of airlines for some years now. At the beginning of commercial aviation, what was important was that the airplane did not crash – and airplanes did not excel in comfort. Subsequently, the interest turned to economy. Over the last ten years, other attributes have become relevant. Comfort is now recognized as a distinguishing feature in the civil aviation market and has become a factor of competitiveness in the sector. Embraer, the third biggest manufacturer of commercial airliners in the world, with net revenues of US$ 5.8 billion in 2011, could not fail to invest in this. Airbus (net revenues of US$ 140.5 billion) and Boeing (US$ 68 billion) are ahead. “All the big companies in the sector are looking in the same direction, within the limits of the peculiarities of each segment,” recalls Jorge Ramos. “Research with passengers on flights on different aircraft in Brazil, carried out in 2009 by UFSCar with the National Civil Aviation Agency, indicated that the main complaints about the cabin were personal space, support for the feet and arms, inclination of the seat, noise, vibration and baggage space,” says André Gasparotti, the manager responsible for the project in the company.

Researchers operate flight simulators, an integral part of the project

Although the new laboratory has only just become completely ready, the researchers from the three universities have already been collaborating with Embraer for several years on the items indicated in the UFSCar research and also on others that are perhaps even more important. Jurandir Yanagihara, from USP, for example, worked in partnership with the company in 2003 and 2004 in developing a computer mode of the respiratory system to study the effect of decompression on the human body at great altitudes. “The success of this software, coupled with other projects on forecasting thermal stress using a model of the human thermal system, helped strengthen cooperation with Embraer, resulting in the current project,” says the coordinator. Members of that team, such as Mauricio Silva Ferreira, a professor at Poli/USP, are also participating in the “Comfort cabin” project.

When the company decided to put together a major project on comfort, the teams from USP, UFSCar and UFSC were consulted. They agreed to take part in the multidisciplinary partnership and distributed the research tasks among themselves– in general terms, cabin pressure, ergonomics, vibro-acoustics and the thermal environment – according to the specialties of each group. Embraer and USP, through Yanagihara, then requested funding from FAPESP under the scope of the Research Support Program of the Technological Innovation Partnering Agreement financing system (Pite), granted in 2008. They subsequently did the same with Finep (see the figures on page 23).

Isolated studies
In the first phase of the project, the various factors that add up to aircraft comfort were studied individually. In the second phase, which begins in May, the new laboratory with the cabin inside the pressure chamber (called a mock-up) will be used for trials that will bring together all the sub-projects, to arrive at better parameters than the current ones. A good example of this is the model for assessing cabin pressure comfort. Today, it is known that for passenger safety, civil aircraft in operation maintain a cabin altitude of up to 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) above sea level. As aircraft can easily reach more than 40,000 feet (12,100 meters), the air within the cabin is pressurized. The model of Yanagihara’s team takes into account the exchange of gases that occurs in the middle ear (the inner part that leads to the labyrinth) and allows it to foresee at what rates of altitude variation (pressure) within the cabin the passenger feels discomfort or not. “We’re doing experimental work in this area, which is likely to change some of these parameters,” says the researcher from Poli. The models still used today in the aeronautical industry date from 1937, 1958 and 1967 and are conservative. “In our studies, which are on-going, we are identifying very different thresholds from those found in scientific literature.”

Outside view of the pressure chamber that is part of the comfort laboratory

The work on vibration and noise within the aircraft, normally carried out separately, has been conducted in conjunction with the rest. The researcher responsible for the vibro-acoustic sub-project is Samir Gerges, an Egyptian aeronautical engineer, naturalized Brazilian, and a professor at UFSC. Gerges is one of Embraer’s oldest employees. Even prior to the company’s privatization he was already teaching courses and providing consultancy services for company employees. Participation in the “Cabin comfort” project with USP and UFSCar is a continuation of his research, which aims to reduce noise to a level that is acceptable to passengers. “Reducing noise and vibration too much is not advisable, even from the safety point of view,” he says. “People have to realize that they are in an environment that is different from their bed at home.”

The team led by Gerges is working to quantify the real situation of noise and vibration in the cabin and is preparing a predictive computer model. This tool will enable getting results faster and less expensively, to avoid uncomfortable noises and vibrations. The model can be used to modify the project for future cabins and to indicate new materials and devices that reduce the problem. The biggest sources of noise are the turbines, the flow of air along the fuselage and the air-conditioning, hydraulics and tire systems.

The ergonomics sub-project started, like the others, with a conceptual model. To understand the main problems, Nilton Menegon’s team from the production engineering department of the Center of Exact Sciences and Technology at UFSCar carried out interviews in 36 Brazilian airports. A questionnaire was prepared to analyze what researchers call “pre-flight” and 377 passengers replied to questions about the degree of comfort within the airplane. “If they have problems before embarking, like overbooking or a long waiting time in lines, this influences their sensation of comfort in the aircraft,” explains Menegon. At a second stage, a further 291 interviews were carried out during the flight to find out, among other things, how difficult it is to carry out activities within the cabin, such as reading, writing, interacting with the flight attendants, eating, resting and going to the restroom.

The researchers also observed how the passengers acted, first by taking digital notes and then by filming them. “The objective was to establish the sequence of activities carried out during the boarding, flight and disembarking phases, to identify the distribution of these activities throughout the flight and to quantify all these actions,” explains Marina Greghi, from Menegon’s team, a psychologist and specialist in ergonomics who was awarded her PhD this year for her thesis on passenger comfort in aircraft. “Systematic observations also aimed to identify the visible behavior of the passengers, like gestures, postures, actions involving devices and communication, for example.”

The filmed material was stored on a site and can be seen by the passengers who agreed to take part in the process of reconstituting the data, which consisted of a telephone or Internet interview to carry out more in-depth analyses, by comparing and contrasting the view of the researcher and that of the passenger. All this material made it possible to create an image and statistical database and to develop software to analyze the activities of people in a stress environment from recordings and posture analysis based on an observation protocol. With the software, one can digitally reconstruct the actions of passengers and with this information generate what researchers call posture envelopes, which help to determine the area and volume occupied by the person when they are carrying out activities. “The envelopes can be used in the project to analyze the space in the cabin and the actions of its occupants in such a way as to identify if it’s possible or not to carry out a particular activity in that place,” says Marina. Called Ilios Pose, the software in question has been patented. Nilton Menegon says that the next step will be taken in the comfort laboratory mock-up, where the procedures already carried out will be repeated, but now in a controlled environment that is integrated with the other sub-projects.

Icing on the cake
The same thing will occur with all the sub-projects. The studies about psycho-physiology should clarify the relation between passenger perception of mental and physiological well-being and discomfort in the cabin, explains Renato Ramos, a psychiatrist from the Psychiatry Biosciences Institute at the Clínicas Hospital of USP’s School of Medicine, and a professor in the graduate health psychology program of the Methodist University of São Paulo. Entertaining yourself with a mental activity may reduce the feeling of discomfort and even affect the experience of the passing of time during the journey; objectively measuring this effect is one of the project’s objectives. “It’s as if the passenger was so distracted with a book that he got to the end of the trip and said, ‘I didn’t even notice time passing’,” says the researcher. Part of the project was conducted with volunteers using virtual reality to assess the degree of involvement of an individual with a particular task. In the tests already carried out, the passenger has his heart beat frequency and how he visually explores the environment monitored, for instance. In the second phase, experiments will also be held in the mock-up to see what can be used to advantage to improve comfort.

In the micro-climate subproject, the passenger must have options in terms of looking for the best temperature sensation inside the cabin. The individual air-blowing nozzles, which are above the seat nowadays, are likely to be increased in number and better controlled, but without affecting the person seated alongside. The seats may also have internal cooling or heating systems. In the first part of the studies carried out by the team of Arlindo Tribess, a Poli/USP professor, models fitted with temperature and heat flow sensors were used. A model of the human thermal system integrated with computational fluid mechanics software will allow forecasts of the reaction of the human body to be made in the face of changes in the thermal environment, without the need for tests with people. According to Mauricio Silva Ferreira, from Poli/USP, who developed the tool, this initiative is a worldwide first.

Control of cabin lighting will be investigated to find out the real influence of color on comfort. “There are reports in scientific literature indicating that warm light, close to red, would be appropriate for activities such as eating, while cold light would have a relaxing effect, which is good for resting,” says Yanagihara. It will only be possible to find out whether colored lights really work after trials in the mock-up. “If this hypothesis is proved, we may even suggest new colors, depending on the activities inside the cabin.”

The icing on the cake, for this project, lies in repeating the studies described above in the comfort laboratory. This time the tests will be fully integrated, with almost 1,000 volunteers being involved in the trials that begin in May. The requirement is to be healthy, to have experience air travel at least once and to live in the general São Paulo area. To volunteer, access www.lete.poli.usp.br/confortodecabine. A pilot, played by a researcher, will welcome you aboard and give you instructions, as happens in reality, and a flight attendant will be hired to work in the cabin. At three points during the simulated flight, the volunteer passengers will assess local comfort.

It was necessary to build the laboratory because it was impossible to carry out experiments on Embraer aircraft. “An actual airplane would come with the limitations of its actual design, the cost would be very high and the availability limited,” says André Gasparotti. Most likely, the upcoming generation of jets will already have cabin modification that will make the experience of flying increasingly enjoyable.

Lasers and sensors measure the temperature of the generator at the Samuel Hydroelectric Power Station in Rondônia

Exchanging copper wires for optical fiber cables is a growing trend in the telecommunications area. One novelty is using fibers for remote monitoring of equipment in hydroelectric power stations. “We use light [lasers] to measure the temperature of the generators in the Samuel Hydroelectric Power Station in Rondônia,” says Professor Marcelo Werneck, from the Electrical Engineering Program at the Graduate School of Research and Engineering (Coppe) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), who coordinated the project. He explains that printed sensors are placed in the core of the fiber to carry out the measuring. The advantage of these devices is that they are insulating – they do not conduct electricity like copper wires – and therefore they are immune to the electricity field around generators and other plant equipment. Additionally, one fiber substitutes several copper wires. “The next step, in a project with Petrobras, is to use fibers with sensors to measure gases in the exploration of oil at the bottom of the pre-salt layer, where it is impossible to use an electrical current because of the risk of explosions,” says Werneck.

Carlos Américo Pacheco: back at ITA, from where he graduated in 1979

The new dean of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) is the 54 year-old engineer and economist Carlos Américo Pacheco, previously a professor on the Economics faculty at Campinas State University (Unicamp). He was appointed on September 21 by the Minister of Defense, Celso Amorim, and is taking charge of one of Brazil’s most highly regarded engineering colleges. Well-known for the difficulty of its entrance exam, ITA has been responsible for the shaping of generations of professionals who have built the aerospace and defense industry in the São José dos Campos region and who have also played key roles in the electronics industry and in the academic world.

One of Pacheco’s main tasks will be to coordinate the doubling of the institute’s undergraduate courses, which currently accept 120 students a year and have 120 professors. Another task will be to increase the quality of the graduate courses, so that they are awarded the maximum score under the Brazilian government’s so-called CAPES evaluation system. ITA’s expansion, explains Pacheco, is an attempt to make the institute more important in terms of national development and to update the principles that have guided it since its foundation, particularly the training of engineers with the capacity to help Brazil to master technologies in strategic sectors.

These targets are part of ITA’s Institutional Development Plan that was approved by Brazil’s Aeronautics Command and outlined during the period when ITA was managed by Pacheco’s predecessor, Brigadier Reginaldo dos Santos, who has been appointed to run Alcântara Cyclone Space, the partnership between Brazil and the Ukraine to utilize the Alcântara satellite launch base in Maranhão. “The fact that ITA is undergoing this interesting period was definitely a factor in my decision to apply for the position of dean,” states Pacheco, who was up against seven other applicants and whose name was at the top of the three-name list forwarded by the search commission to the Ministry of Defense.

Pacheco will be the nineteenth dean in the line that began with Richard Harbert Smith, a researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who was hired to be the first director of ITA, which was established in 1950. Having graduated with a degree in electronic engineering from ITA in 1979, the new dean is one of those professionals who has been shaped by the institute and then went to the academic world. Pacheco has a master’s degree and a PhD in economics from Unicamp and a post-doctorate from Columbia University in the United States. With experience in urban-regional economics and industrial and technological economics, he was executive secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology between 1999 and 2002 and chairman of the board of directors of the Ministry’s Research and Projects Financing Institution.

The idea of doubling the number of places offered by ITA has been brewing for some time. The institute increased the range of courses offered: in addition to the course in aeronautical, electronic, mechanical and civil engineering that were established between 1950 and 1970, a computer engineering course was created in 1989, and an aerospace engineering course in 2010. But the number of places and  professors remained unchanged. The need to form a larger contingent of engineers gave a sense of urgency to the expansion plans: according to figures from 2007, a mere 5% of university graduates are engineers, vs. 6.1% in the United States and 25% in South Korea. Between 2003 and 2008, the employment rate in the engineering area grew by 8.3% a year vs. an average increase of 2.6% in the total level of employment.

One strong argument in favor of ITA’s expansion came from an analysis of the performance of the candidates who sat the institute’s entrance examination. It was concluded that at least 400 candidates performed very well and could have been approved ITA, but there is only room for 120. The number of applicants who enrolled to take ITA’s most recent entrance examination came out to a total of 9 thousand, up from 7,500 the previous time. This increase was probably the result of an upturn in the market for engineers. “We are confident that it is possible to expand with quality. It’s a waste not to take advantage of these talents. The cost of ITA’s expansion is low by comparison with the return, which is impressive,” states the new dean.

He is referring to the profile of the professionals who graduate from ITA. “ITA’s students learn values such as leadership, responsibility and respect for merit. This set of values is known as Conscious Discipline, which for example, enables the professors to leave the classroom during an exam,” he explains. The institution’s former dean, Brigadier Reginaldo dos Santos, recalls that ITA’s students have made contributions to the development of various areas of technology. “The quality of our engineers is recognized both in Brazil and internationally,” he declared at the graduation ceremony of the engineering class of 2010, which was held in January.

The drop-out rate among ITA students is roughly 8% throughout the course –one of the country’a lowest. According to the Ministry of Education’s figures for 2007, in the case of Federal Universities, on average 27% of the students drop out before the end of the course. The logistics of the expansion is no simple matter, given that ITA students also receive lodging and meals. The hiring of new professors will be one of the trickier points. “We will have to shape new professionals and this will include sending them abroad, and we will also have to bring foreign researchers to Brazil. The job market in Brazil is very buoyant and the best talent is already employed. But the crisis in Europe and the United States may help us to attract high quality professionals,” explains Pacheco.

The expansion of the faculty will also have an impact on the post-graduate area. The challenge here is not just to grow, but more importantly to achieve the high level of quality that has always characterized ITA’s undergraduate courses. According to figures from ITA’s Institutional Development Plan, the evaluation provided by CAPES ( the Brazilian government organization that assesses graduate courses, among other duties) of ITA’s graduate courses have awarded a score of 4 to the electronic engineering and computing, aeronautical infrastructure and physics engineering courses, and of 6 to the aeronautical and mechanical engineering courses. The target is to achieve the maximum score of 7. The professional master’s degree course in aeronautical and mechanical engineering received a score of 5, which is the maximum given for this kind of course. At present, ITA has more than one thousand graduate students, of whom one third are doing master’s degree courses, one third, professional master’s degree courses and the last third, doctorates.

Pacheco emphasizes that ITA has never ceased to be an extremely important school. “But Brazil was smaller in the 1950s and the impact of an elite school with a hundred engineers graduating a year was more significant back then. Other good engineering schools have been established and other institutions now offer even aerospace engineering courses,” he states. The current challenges are more complex. “When ITA was first founded, the country had the very beginnings of an aerospace industry, which was state owned. Now Brazil has a strong, dynamic industry. We have the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, which has suppliers, such as General Electric, a lot bigger than Embraer itself,” he explains.

The aim of ITA’s expansion is to produce professionals that can help the aerospace and defense sectors to face the future. “The market is going to change with competition from Chinese companies as well as from firms in other emerging economies, and we need to create an environment of support for innovations in the aeronautics, space and defense sectors,” he says, referring to the establishment in the São José dos Campos region of a conglomerate of companies and laboratories along the lines of those found in Toulouse, in France, or in Hamburg, in Germany. ITA’s participation in this type of effort is nothing new, he notes.

When the institute was established, it was part of a set of institutions conceived for the purpose of creating the aeronautics industry, such as the Research and Development Institute (Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento) and Industrial Development Institute (Instituto de Fomento Industrial), within the Aerospace Technical Center (Centro Técnico Aeroespacial), which is now called the CTA. “The recent establishment of the São José dos Campos Technology Park (Parque Tecnológico de São José dos Campos) has also helped to create an environment that complements the CTA,” he declares. Collaboration between universities and companies will become increasingly common, he explains, as this model has become widely accepted throughout Brazil over the last 20 years. “Brazil is mature enough to take big bets, but to do this you need institutions and companies that help to act as catalysts for this process, and that help remove obstacles in terms of the selection at our schools,” he notes.

The defense industry is also likely to become more important. “We have always had a significant, advanced defense industry, which can be seen from examples such as Avibrás and Engesa. Since Brazil’s defense strategy requires that new technologies be mastered and since the government is proposing to place orders, the private sector has begun to make preparations,” states Pacheco, referring to the setting up of two companies, Embraer Defesa and Odebrecht Defesa, a subsidiary of the infrastructure company created following the acquisition of Mectron, a well-established firm in São José dos Campos. “These companies have enormous financial and management capacity and this gives a major boost to the private sector,” he adds.

The development prospects also arouse interest in other sectors. “Research into advanced materials, such as carbon fiber, may be even more important for the petroleum sector than for the aerospace sector. The field of unmanned aviation, which will require investments as well as technological mastery, is going to need trained people. The implications for the automotive and telecommunications industries will also be important,” declares Pacheco, recalling that in the 1970s ITA was already supplying professionals to the state owned telecommunications company Telebras and its research division, CPqD.

In the eucalyptus plantation, the cut wood travels to the plant via a system called a monorail, similar to a cable car. The steel cables are fixed to posts and attached to trees

Better known for being used at barbecues, charcoal in Brazil is also responsible for the production of 30% of the pig iron, the metal alloy used for producing the steel used in vehicles, machines, ships, trains, cables and other products. Worldwide, this percentage is less than 1%. Thus, part of the steel made in the country is renewable, unlike the use of coal, which requires the exploration of finite mines, often underground, and in the case of Brazil is almost all imported. Charcoal or coal is essential for supplying the carbon in pig iron. The problem is that around 50% of Brazilian charcoal production, whether for barbecues or for producing steel, is also carried out in a rudimentary way, in a brick-oven, which is highly polluting and looks like an oca [Indian hut] or igloo, called a meda or rabo-quente [hot tail], and often uses native wood. The solutions, including the social solution because the industry often employs children and slave labor, are beginning to appear as a result of research by companies and universities and also the need  for technological advances in the production of charcoal.

One of the solutions comes from the more than 20 years of persistence by production engineer Nilton Nunes Toledo, a retired professor from the Polytechnic School (Poli) of the University of São Paulo (USP). He has developed a more advanced and environmentally correct system for producing charcoal with the generation of electricity during the gasification process of wood chips and sawdust, for example. Furthermore, the system does away with the use of trucks in the production, cutting and transporting of eucalyptus, the reforestation crop most indicated for charcoal-making, although it can also be produced from elephant grass, orange and sugarcane bagasse, rice husks and other waste.

“The charcoal plant must be set up in the eucalyptus forest and the focus has to cover everything, including the way it is planted, harvested, handled and made into charcoal. Heat consumption and a new, rapid cooling system have to be optimized and all by-products must take advantage of this, including bio-oil, tar and pyroligneous acid, which is used in the chemical and cosmetics industries and which can be worth more than the charcoal itself,” says Nilton, who is currently the CEO of the Foundation for the Technological Development of Engineering (FDTE), an entity formed by Poli engineers and that is responsible for coordinating the project. He started studying the subject in the 1980s when he was a co-owner, with other businessmen, of a farm producing wood in the Ribeira Valley region in São Paulo State.

“We started selling wood for packaging, while at the same time studying what it is to make charcoal and building several types of oven that were heated by blow-torches. But the system was disappointing because of problems with the process, like the huge amount of time it took for the wood to turn into charcoal.” Since the 1980s, he has been thinking about developing a second version, which was recently finished. “Now I don’t think about using brick cells, but a tunnel made from the same material that functions as an oven. The wood must be heated within cylindrical metallic boxes, called retorts, which are hermetically sealed, in the absence of oxygen that can change the charcoal yield.” They roll into the oven and in around 10 hours, on average, at a temperature of around 400°C, the wood is transformed into charcoal.

The wood reaches the plant by monorail and the logs are placed in retorts

The manufacture of chemical products that can substitute the congeners obtained from oil is carried out by condensing steam. It is taken to separation towers set up alongside the oven where the combustible gases coming from the charcoal-making process mix with the gases produced in the gasification boiler and help the plant to be self-sufficient in energy. “Condensation is divided into two parts, an oily phase from which come the vegetable tar and bio-oil, a complex mixture of many products, and the aqueous phase that produces pyroligneous acid, which can be transformed into methanol and acetic acid,” explains Nilton. Bio-oil, which can be employed for generating electricity, is a dark liquid used both for burning in boilers and in the chemical industry in the manufacture of resins, for example. Tar, another type of fuel, is also the raw material for disinfectants. Methanol is widely used in producing biodiesel and acetic acid in the manufacture of solvents and paints. “Producing these compounds in the plant is difficult, but feasible because they are classic processes.” The production system and the oven that receives the retorts and has a mechanism designed for separating the by-products and heating gases for the wood drying oven are two of the three patent applications submitted to the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). The third has to do with the transportation of the wood, which is done using a system called a monorail, similar to a cable car. The wood travels from where it is cut to the plant on supports that move throughout the eucalyptus plantation on steel cables attached to two meter high posts fixed to the trees themselves. “This system avoids the use of tractors or trucks for transporting logs to the plant,” he explains. He estimates that daily production of charcoal with the new system, which is called silvo-chemistry, will be 40 tons on a 5000 hectare farm and should employ 300 people.

Compared with the rabo-quente ovens, the new one has the advantage of using 432 kg less wood for each ton of charcoal produced. From the same amount of charcoal it is possible to obtain 333 kg of chemical by-products. Having been well-assessed in the laboratory phase, the project needs a pilot plant, which is likely to cost around R$ 2 million, in order to check the efficiency of all stages. “We’re looking to business for funds for this phase,” he says. The final setting up of the plant is likely to cost R$ 10 million. “This type of industrial model is used in other countries and in Brazil is has already been tried in the past, in the 1970s and 1980s, when charcoal was only made from native timber, which was abundant,” says Professor José Otávio Brito, from USP’s Higher School of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz” (Esalq).

“After a certain stagnation of technology  in the 1990s, there has been a growing return by the steel industry in Brazil to charcoal because the country has the potential to be a large global competitor in the so-called “green steel,” that is obtained from pig iron produced using charcoal,” says Brito. With regard to  technology, some companies, such as Bricarbras, from Paraná, and Ondatec, from Uberaba (MG), are examples of investment in the development of ovens for transforming wood into charcoal. In the late 1990s the former began developing a charcoal-making system that takes place in cylindrical containers and has had good results, with a reduction in gas emissions, by means of an incinerator, when compared with ovens made from clay or brickwork. “But this system is very expensive for medium size and small owners,” says Professor Benedito Vital, from the Department of Forestry Engineering at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), in Minas Gerais. Focusing on these companies, Vital and Professor Angélica de Cássia Carneiro, developed a system that is similar to the one used in large steel mills, which in addition to doing the carbonization work more efficiently than charcoal made by hand, burns off the process gases. “The smoke is burned off in jets of hot air at temperatures of more than 1000°C. Using heat exchangers we’ve managed to cool the charcoal quickly to sell the product in a shorter period of time,” says Vital. “This system is ready to be passed on to companies.”

Brickwork ovens in Pará: rudimentary system that pollutes and often uses slave and child labor

Another novelty for the sector is still surrounded by secrecy. Ondatec, which originated in the Technology and Business Incubator at the University of Uberaba (Uniube), in Minas Gerais, is ready to launch a new carbonization oven. The brainchild of Professor Ricardo Naufel from the electrical engineering course, who is also the company’s technical director, the difference about this oven is the mathematical modeling used in the carbonization control system, which will be very precise. “It will be an intelligent oven,” Naufel guarantees. According to the professor, R$ 10 million was invested by private investors, whose names cannot be revealed before the launch. “We installed a pilot unit in Uberaba and for a year we observed the system. Now we’ve installed the first industrial unit in Tietê, in São Paulo State to produce barbecue charcoal first. Afterwards, we’re going to produce bigger units for steel mills.”

Many of the problems related to current charcoal making plants concern some of the pig iron makers, which produce it independently from the major steel mills to sell to foundries and steelworks. The wood often comes from native timber. Productivity is low and control conditions are ineffective. At the other extreme of the sector are some of the country’s steel-makers, such Vallourec & Mannesmann and Aperam, formerly ArcelorMittal, both in Minas Gerais, and Votorantim Siderurgia, in Rio de Janeiro, which use charcoal and have their own production systems for this raw material. Other mills use coal for the same function. To supply this, Brazil, the world’s ninth biggest steel producer, imported 15.9 million tons of coal in 2010, according to the World Steel Association, at a cost of US$ 1.6 billion.

“Charcoal is a peculiarity of the Brazilian steel-making industry,” reveals the technical document, Siderurgia no Brasil 2010-2025, [Steel-making in Brazil, 2010-2025], a study published in 2010 by the Center for Strategic Management and Studies (CGEE), an organization linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The document points out that charcoal is a type of biomass that can be produced from several plants, like a renewable mine. According to the researcher José Dilcio Rocha, from Embrapa Agroenergia [Embrapa Agroenergy] in Brasília, “green steel” has an environmental appeal because of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the steel sector. “We lack public policies and good projects, like Professor Nilton’s one, which could raise the charcoal production sector to a level equal to that of the production of ethanol,” says Rocha.

“The mechanized harvesting operation as it is currently done basically uses the same technology as 50 years ago, which was developed in Australia,” says Professor Oscar Braunbeck, from the School of Agricultural Engineering (Feagri) at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), coordinator of the controlled traffic farming program. One of the advantages of the new machinery, currently being tested in a laboratory that imitates the field conditions of a sugarcane plantation, is reducing traffic on the planted area and as a result soil compression, which is prejudicial to the growth of the plants in subsequent years.

While the controlled traffic farming machine has a gauge (distance between the wheels) of 9 meters, current harvesters have a gauge of between 1.6 and 2.4 meters. Because of this and their weight, they only manage to harvest one row of sugarcane at a time and cause compression of around 60% of the soil’s surface, which ends up harming the development of the crop. “Compression encourages erosion and makes it difficult for water to penetrate the soil,” says Braunbeck. The 40% of the land where current machinery is unable to go is the preserved area, on which sugarcane can be produced. “With a wider gauge the preserved area for planting would reach 87%,” is the comparison Braunbeck makes. “By reducing heavy traffic in sugar plantations we provide the opportunity for planting cane directly, as is done with cereals.”

The first version of the equipment was designed to adapt to the structure of current mechanization. So it was made in an articulated way, with traction and steering on all four wheels, arms that withdraw for road transport and harvesting heads that are positioned to cut six lines of cane, two at a time. It will be driven by an automatic pilot with GPS, which will be supervised by an operator.

Harvesting system using the current machinery results in heavy traffic on sugar plantations

Steep ground
The new machine will be able to go on to steeper ground. “Because the first version of the equipment we are developing is wider, it remains stable in places where the gradient is as great as 19%,” says Braunbeck. Today’s harvesters manage to go on land with a gradient no greater than 12%. “Above this, because they are narrow, they overturn fairly easily,” says the agricultural engineer Guilherme Ribeiro Gray, a former student at Feagri and one of the partners in Agricef, a company that is involved in the project.

Founded in 2005, until 2008 the company was housed in the Unicamp incubator, Incamp. Agricef has already had three projects approved under FAPESP’s Innovative Research in Small Companies (Pipe) type of funding, and since 2009 it has been participating in the CTBE project, in which it is responsible for the development of the harvesting module.

Braunbeck emphasizes that there has been no evolution in the sugarcane agricultural management system with the changes that have occurred in environmental, economic and social demands. Harvesting, for example, although it has undergone a great advance with the gradual prohibition of burning cane straw manually, still uses machinery developed in the 1950s in Australia. “The machines for harvesting cane have only undergone a few adaptations since they were first designed, while the harvesting of cereals has advanced a lot.”

It is right to focus on cereals. The area planted with cereals in the world is around 700 million hectares, while sugarcane occupies just 22 million hectares. “The loss during mechanical harvesting in sugar plantations today is around 10%,” says Gray. For comparison purposes, the loss in harvesting grain is around 1.5%. “To reduce damage in sugar plantations we’re proposing a principle that is different from the current one.” Instead of a harvester with a divider to separate the rows on the plantation, which results in tangling and a loss of cane, the basis of the proposed operation is to fix the cane in the machine to then cut it at its base, draw it in and move it by traction to the upper part, where it will be chopped up into small pieces and transferred to the trailer, a vehicle used for transporting the cane. “The separator that is on the sides of the equipment is synchronized with the speed at which the machine is moving,” says Gray. It raises the culm (stem) so the chain or moving-belt pulling mechanism can collect the cane. The idea is to handle the cane as little as possible before it is cut to reduce damage to the ratoon root system, which remains in the ground to regrow , and losses in the field.

Once the small cut up pieces of cane have been transferred to the trailer, the project proposes to load part of the straw onto it while the rest will remain as ground cover on the plantation. This cover will help reduce the temperature of the soil, control weeds and diminish water evaporation. Now, in most cases, all the straw is thrown onto the soil, because as its density is very low the cost of transport ends up being high. The proposal is for the straw to “hitch a ride” with the chopped up small pieces of cane so that it settles into the cracks between the cane. The main partner of the new machine project is Jacto, an agricultural machinery and electric vehicle industry headquartered in Pompeia, in inner-state São Paulo, with support from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in the amount of R$ 16 million. Within four years the equipment must be tested and functioning and the partner company has a further two years to make the product ready for sale.

Electronic model of the new machine, with a distance between the axles of 9 meters

Sustainable management
The direct planting of cane, which takes place without plowing the soil, is one of the aspects of the project. “This is sustainable management, because every time the soil is plowed there is a loss, which will have an impact over the years,” says Braunbeck. The idea is that the machine opens up furrows in predefined places, where the sugarcane points will be evenly deposited in the correct amounts. Currently, the machines distribute them irregularly. “Distribution is very bad and more than 50% of the cuttings die because of competition among themselves.”

The CTBE also has a project for exploring precision farming to increase productivity and reduce fertilizer costs and environmental impact. The objective is to personalize soil management. Sensors will be developed in sugar plantations for measuring soil or plant properties. With information from the sensors, as the machinery moves around it would start treating the soil with the necessary inputs. An area of 100 hectares at the Pedra Mill in Serrana, in São Paulo State, is being used for trials. Other partners are the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Valtra, a manufacturer of tractors from Mogi das Cruzes, in São Paulo State, Paulista State University (Unesp) at Jaboticabal, Higher School of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz” of the University of São Paulo (USP) and Unicamp.

The studies that resulted in the agricultural machinery project started in the 1990s and extended over the subsequent years, when Braunbeck, with support from FAPESP, carried out basic research into the cutting and cleaning of sugarcane. Subsequently, other studies dealing with aspects of mechanized harvesting were carried out by Agricef’s partners, with guidance from Braunbeck. “All this knowledge formed the basis for the current project,” says the professor. In his assessment, the change from manual harvesting to mechanical has been very fast considering that sugarcane has been grown in Brazil for the last 500 years.

In the State of São Paulo, the main producer of Brazilian sugarcane , an agreement signed in 2007 between producers, mills and the government, called the Agro-environmental Protocol, determined the elimination of the burning of straw by 2014 in mechanized areas and by 2017 in all sugarcane-growing areas. In the rest of the country, the environmental legislation allows the burning of straw in sugar plantations until 2020.

“By converting from manual to mechanized harvesting there is a two-fold environmental gain,” says the researcher Marcelo Valadares Galdos, from the CTBE’s Sustainability Program, which is carrying out a full carbon audit of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil, a study carried out in partnership with Esalq. “On the one hand, when cane waste stops being burned we stop sending carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but there are also other gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect and they are even more powerful, like nitrous oxide,” says Galdos.

The second gain is that by leaving the straw in the field, when it decomposes it ends up being incorporated into the land and there is an increase in the stock of carbon in the soil, which is very important for the ecosystem. “We’ve identified an average annual accumulation of 1,500 kg of carbon per hectare with the system without burning and leaving the straw on the ground,” adds Galdos. “There is between two and three times more carbon in a layer of up to 1 meter of soil than in all the vegetation.” Therefore, there is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The particulate material, soot, was also computed in the audit. “This material goes into the atmosphere and has an effect that is related to global warming.”

Scientific article
GALDOS, M.V. et al. Net greenhouse gas fluxes in Brazilian ethanol production systems. Global Change Biology Bioenergy. v 2. p. 37-44. 2010.