Application Analysis of Otto Cycle Natural Gas Engines for the Urban bus Fleet in the São Paulo City 2001-01-3825

The present paper has for objective to accomplish an analysis of the substitution of the urban bus fleet in the São Paulo city, now motorized with the diesel cycle, for the Otto cycle natural gas engines and to evaluate the viability, under technical, economic and environmental aspects.

The natural gas appears as an alternative energy for next years, mainly for the construction of gaspipelines, linking Brazil to the countries of South America with great offer of natural gas. Even so the infrastructure of provisioning meets faulty and located in some capital cities of the Brazilian territory, what hinders the “fast difusion” of the natural gas technology for the whole country. The costs of natural gas station implementation are around R$ 850.000, which for a urban bus fleet of 10.156, it would be necessary the instalation of 41 natural gas station per year, so that being taken in consideration the natural renewal of the vehicles along 6 years, we could have the whole urban bus fleet of the São Paulo city motorized with natural gas engine without provisioning problems. Brazil has been dependent in 15% of the whole diesel oil consumed in its territory, being imported of the Petroleum Producing Countries. The urban bus fleet in the São Paulo city consumes about 412 million liters per year of diesel oil, wich represents 1,2% of the whole imported diesel consumed in the brazilian territory.

Of all the involved aspects, the main, seal him in the environmental subject, where the number of people, whose suffer of problems originating from the pollution of the São Paulo city, grows up every day, and analyzing that the natural gas engine possesses reduced indexes of emissions, which assist the limits established by the European stand Euro III, we have an initiative of great importance for the improvement of the air quality.

For several analyzed aspects, in this work, it is ended that, if the city hall of São Paulo would invest, creating infrastructure and motivating through subsidies the use of the natural gas, we will have a reduction of the government's expenses then not just, but also a significant improvement in the life quality.