Sustentabilidade e o transporte urbano de passageiros na cidade do Rio de Janeiro: um modelo que promova utilização de fontes energéticas alternativas com impacto no desempenho das empresas do segmento

Abstract

Urban public transportation by bus in Brazil has not had significant advances in terms of the diversification of its energy matrix and its dependence on diesel oil from fossil sources. This dependence occurs in a relatively wide range of technologies and alternative fuels with higher operating and implementation costs, without it has been possible to make a significant substitution, to reduce the levels of global and local emissions of pollutants in the sector, especially in large centers. The great crisis faced by the sector of public transport of passengers by bus in Brazil in the last 8 years, with annual losses of transported passengers, has made it even more difficult to introduce new technologies and cleaner fuels. The search for an alternative way to minimize the emission levels of the bus fleets and the generation of new sources of revenue for the operating companies seems too difficult to solve in projects that depend exclusively on private initiative actions. Given this difficulty, an opportunity was envisioned that can be born with the idea of a new and disruptive business, according to what has been called new social businesses, the proposal of this paper. The main objective then will be to demonstrate that the creation of a new business with social characteristics can produce both new revenues with the production of renewable fuel while reducing the levels of fossil fuel consumption in the sector, and generating extra income for transportation users, which would justify the investments required for the phased implementation of this project. After analyzing the sector and its supply chain, an opportunity with unique sustainability characteristics was identified, which proved to be extremely feasible from the technical and operational perspective, through the generation of biodiesel from used cooking oil feedstock, with the remuneration of the waste oil donors being done in the form of transit credits. After having conducted interviews with several specialists and related entities, the strategic and legal aspects that indicate the political and institutional viability of the project were mapped, especially for its ability to strengthen the image, promote the real reduction of local and global emissions, in addition to the great environmental contribution related to the reduction of pollution of the cities' water bodies, through the collection of used cooking oil. The results showed impressive financial feasibility, an alternative that proved to be possible to be implemented in any Brazilian city, by the transport operators themselves.