Source: UDOP - Araçatuba / SP - CURIOSITIES - 28/07/2010

To avoid irregularities in fuels, since December 06, 12, the plants have a 2005-day period, that is, until January 30, 6 to add an orange colorant to the anhydrous alcohol sold in the national market in the proportion of 2006 mg per liter of alcohol.

Published in the Official Gazette of the Union, Resolution No. 36 of the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels), establishes the specifications of anhydrous ethyl alcohol fuel (AEAC) and hydrated ethyl alcohol fuel (AEHC) sold throughout the territory national level, in accordance with the provisions contained in ANP Technical Regulation No. 7/2005. the resolution creates standards for the addition of dye, ph, acidity, alcohol content and others for alcohol intended for fuel use.

In the case of the addition of the dye, it does not need to be added to the product to be exported or to the product transported by pipelines, to avoid contamination, as long as it has prior authorization from the ANP.

Hydrated alcohol will not receive the dye precisely to differentiate it from anhydrous alcohol, since the fraud that is intended to curb is to add water to anhydrous alcohol.

According to the press office of the ANP, the addition of the dye to anhydrous ethyl alcohol fuel aims to curb irregularities in the national fuel market, an intention that received support from representatives of alcohol producers such as Unica, the National Sugar and Alcohol Forum and Sindaçúcar , in addition to Sindicom (National Union of Fuel and Lubricant Distributors) and Fecombustíveis (National Federation of Fuel and Lubricants).

All dealer stations in Brazil will have to put a sticker on the fuel pumps informing the consumer that hydrated alcohol can only be sold if it is clear and colorless.

The consumer can observe the color of the alcohol through the thermensensimeter, equipment that is already mandatory at the retailer stations or simply requesting a visual test. In case the establishment does not have the equipment or refuses to do the requested test, the consumer can report the post through the ANP Consumer Relations Center on 0800 900 267, which will forward the report to the agency's inspection. The penalty for selling fuel outside the specification, be it alcohol, gasoline or diesel, ranges from 20 thousand to 5 million reais.

ADULTERED FUELS

The non-conformity rates of alcohol have been decreasing in Brazil since 2002, according to the Monitoring of Fuel Quality of the ANP. However, they are far from showing the evolution of gasoline, which had its non-compliance rate reduced from 12,5% ​​in 2000 to 3,5% this year, until November.

In some states, the ANP has even detected an increase in non-compliance rates for hydrated alcohol. The most serious cases are from Sergipe, Alagoas, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and São Paulo, which recorded in November the rates of 50,0%, 33,3%, 15,7%, 13,5% and 11,7% , respectively.

It can be said that the alcohol market has undergone changes due to high oil prices and the increase in the number of flexible vehicles. Data from Anfavea (National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers) show that sales of flex-fluel vehicles grew 65% in the year to the month of November.

ANP's fuel quality superintendent, Maria Antonieta Souza, says there is a large volume of adulterated alcohol on the market. Several ANP analysis samples identified water above the 7% limit.

This adulteration led Anfavea to seek ANP due to defects in valves, injectors and flexible vehicle engines still under warranty. The automakers found that the defects were due to fuel.

Law 9847/99 establishes that the ANP inspection has the right to demand from the person responsible for the reseller post the length of all the necessary determinations for the operation of the establishment, as well as authorizing it to test the quality of the fuel sold. If any irregularity is found, the reseller post is assessed, that is, an infraction notice is issued and an administrative proceeding is opened, with the right of ample defense to the offending post. At the end of the process, the post can be fined.

FORMS OF ADULTERATION

There are many ways to tamper with alcohol. The best known are the greater addition of anhydrous alcohol than the proportion of 25% to gasoline and "wetting" anhydrous alcohol and selling it as hydrated (alcohol used to fuel cars and sold at gas stations). The gain of this last tactic is basically to collect less taxes. When the distributor that makes use of it, removes the anhydrous alcohol from the plant without having to collect the ICMS, since it is paid at the refineries when the gasoline A is removed. Hence, this anhydrous receives the addition of water and is marketed as alcohol hydrated. However, in addition to the state government, which does not receive the ICMS, consumers are also penalized, as the added water contains chemical elements and impurities harmful to the engines and, in many cases, exceeds the 7% that are naturally present in hydrated alcohol in due to its distillation process.

Even with the adoption of the dye, the executive vice president of the Fuel and Lubricants Union (Sindicom), Alísio Jacques Mendes Vaz, fears more grotesque forms of adulteration, such as a mixture of water and hydrated alcohol. In addition, he recalls that another form of tax evasion is the direct sale of anhydrous alcohol from the plants to the filling stations. To avoid tax evasion, the union intends to put pressure on the federal government to change the form of tax collection in 2006, by means of a decree to regulate law 10.833 / 03, which provides for a zero rate of PIS and Cofins on the sale of hydrated alcohol for distributors.

In this way, the distributors would pay zero rate on the price of alcohol. In compensation, a CIDE (Contribution for Intervention in the Economic Domain) of R $ 0,037 per liter could be created, which would be paid at the plants. Thus, the government would be able to redeem what is no longer collected without changing the final price of the product.

For that, the plant would have a higher cost and increase its price. The distributor, in turn, could lower its fuel sales value because it would be failing to pay PIS and Cofins, with a balance in the final price.

For Sindicom, fuel evasion can reach R $ 2,6 billion per year. Of this total, adulteration of alcohol and gasoline represents R $ 1 billion each.

WILL IT INCREASE THE COST OF ALCOHOL?

According to the ANP's fuel quality superintendent, Maria Antonieta, the color of the alcohol will cost R $ 0,32 per thousand liters of alcohol. Currently the dye is manufactured in Brazil by the companies Basf, Clariant and Sintenac, all approved by the ANP. The addition of the dye will be done at the plant.

Maria Antonieta does not believe that there will be a price increase for the final consumer. "This resource will be diluted in the sales scale", he said. Alísio Vaz, from Sindicom, agrees with the superintendent. “It is equivalent to a tenth of a cent per liter. It is a really insignificant thing and will not be perceived by the consumer ”, he said.

Léo Soares Jr., development manager at Brenntag, a distribution company for Basan Sudan Orange dye, agrees with Maria Antonieta: “my perception is that the cost of applying the dye, R $ 0,0004 per liter of alcohol , is insignificant close to the benefit that this measure will bring to the entire market ”.

“Those who were gaining from 'wet' alcohol were the bad distributors, who, in addition to evading taxes, sold water for alcohol to consumers,” says Soares.
For him, with the end of alcohol fraud, its price at the pumps should increase. “This is because, through this measure, there will no longer be cheap, adulterated and out of specification alcohol. However, with the beginning of the next harvest, anticipated for March, alcohol prices will fall for the consumer, who will have more quality assurance for the alcohol he will be buying ”, says Soares.

OTHER NEW RULES

Also in accordance with ANP Resolution No. 36, producers and importers must keep under their custody, for at least two months, a sample of each batch of the product sold, and this sample does not require dye. The control sample must be stored in properly sealed packaging and accompanied by a quality certificate. During this period, the control sample and the quality certificate must be available to ANP for any verification that the agency deems necessary. The quality certificate must be signed by a chemist responsible for the laboratory analyzes performed.

The resolution further determines that the fuel distributor authorized to add anhydrous alcohol to gasoline A, for the production of gasoline C, must keep under its custody, for a minimum period of seven days, a test sample, stored in sealed packaging, collected at end of the day, of each anhydrous alcohol tank in operation, accompanied by the quality certificate issued by the producer or importer that the product was purchased.

The distributor must also certify the quality of the hydrated alcohol to be delivered to retailers, by conducting laboratory tests on samples of the marketed product, the result of which must be included in a compliance bulletin. The newsletter must be kept by the distributor for a period of two months, at the disposal of the ANP.

Producers, importers and distributors must send to ANP, by the 15th day of the month following the one to which the data sent refer, a statistical summary of the quality certificates and quality bulletins issued.

All of these measures are mandatory and were approved by representatives of the production, distribution and resale segments of the product during a public hearing held on the afternoon of December 8, at the central office of the ANP in Rio de Janeiro.

SINGLE SUPPORT

According to Unica's consultant for alcohol, Alfred Szwarc, his entity has every interest that alcohol has the best possible image on the market, but there are concerns regarding the impact of the application of this resolution on the production flow and costs of the plants. “As the adulteration is carried out in the steps following the manufacturing process, we believe that we will be burdened by a problem with other agents. After all, the root of the problem of adulteration of alcohol is fiscal ”, evaluates Alfred, coherently.

SPECIFICATIONS

According to Ramiro Parra, manager of the performance chemicals department at Basf, the product that will be added to andiro alcohol is a synthetic dye of an organic nature, of non-ionic character, from the color index solvent family, of orange tint and with specifications of absorption according to ANP decree.

Parra guarantees that the dye will not compromise the engines. “Due to its organic nature, the product is normally burned together with the fuel, leaving no residues or gums that will affect the engines. In addition, dyes of this type can be used for coloring gasoline, diesel oil, various solvents, oils and lubricating greases ”, says Parra.

Visiting the mills to see how the anhydrous alcohol staining process is going, Soares noted that many of them made a small stainless steel tank on top of the loading platform. To add the dye to the alcohol, the mills have been placing it inside the tanks of the trucks when they reach approximately 20% of their total alcohol load. After adding the dye, complete the load with the remaining alcohol. “I think there is no need for this procedure. It would be enough to add the dye at the end, with the dye at the end, already with a full load. Thus, productivity would be gained and the final coloring effect would be the same ”, concludes Soares.

Marlei Euripa and Diana Nascimento
Source: IDEANews Magazine - Year 6 - nº 63 - January / 2005