Rio, 9/10/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazil is moving toward proficiency in transforming natural gas into liquid fuels, such as gasoline and diesel. For the last two years technicians at the National Institute of Technology (INT), in partnership with the Gas Technology Center (CTGas) and Petrobrás have been working on the problem.

According to Fábio Bellot Noronha, the work is promising, but will still take some time. Noronha explains that the traditional method of turning methanol into a liquid fuel is very expensive and so the Brazilian researchers are attempting alternative methods. Liquid fuels have a number of advantatges. They are less expensive to transport, for example. Brazil also has large reserves of natural gas and the process will reduce costs by reducing imports. (AB)