Team:USP-EEL-Brazil/HP/Gold

Product reception

We wanted to know whether people would be comprehensive with using a product from genetically modified bacteria or not. With that intent, we conducted a survey in our region and university.

The main question would be if people would use the fuel in their vehicle:

People who would use bacterial fuel. Source:Personal archive.

Surprisingly, most of the answers were positive. We also asked why would they use or not. The two main reasons are the effectiveness and the environmental arguments. Most of the answers (49%) said that this new fuel would probably be more green than petroleum diesel and it is a good reason. The runner-up answer (39%) is the one in which the collaborators affirm that if the fuel were to be as effective as common fuel and safe, there is no problem in using it.

People who heard about synthetic biology. Source:Personal archive.

Since we did our survey in our own region, it is safe to assume that we had a pretty strong influence in the answer to this question. We believe that most of the positive answers, the subjects had already heard about the synthetic biology club, but not about synthetic biology per say. We believe this is the case because followed up by this question, we asked if people could tell us what it is, and only about 26% managed to provide a correct answer.

People who synthetic biology products. Source:Personal archive.

We can also note that the greater portion of the subjects also did not have any known contact with synthetic biology, but it is actually a little bit surprising the almost 35% positive response.

Diesel consumption

Using data provided by the ANS (National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency), it is estimated that in August of 2016, the diesel sale in the state of Sao Paulo came around 1325609 m3 of fuel. This represents the highest consumption in the whole country and around 11,2% of the fuel market.

At the same time, in August of 2016, the total of biodiesel produced countrywide reached around 327183 m3. So, basically, Brazil has one of the 5 biggest biodiesel productions in the world, and the whole country produces about 25% of a single state consumption. It is almost absurd how little biodiesel is used in such a capable country, especially when the envirment is at stake.

Sources

ANP. National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels agency. Avaible at: http://www.anp.gov.br/

Fernandes, F.M.; et.al. Biodiesel no mundo e no Brasil: Situação atual e cenários futuros (2015).