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Four distilleries are in the pipeline to ease the country’s growing thirst for bioethanol fuel.

On-stream beginning in the first quarter of 2010 will be Roxol Bioenergy in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, with an annual capacity of about 30 million liters.

By 2010-2011, Cavite Biofuels Producers Inc.’s bioethanol facility in Magallanes, Cavite, will generate 38 million liters, bringing the expected local production to about 107 million liters.

Two more projects will be put up between 2010-2012 with a combined capacity of about 100 million liters per year: the Green Futures Innovation distillery in San Mariano, Isabela, with a capacity of 54 million liters annually, and the Northern Mindanao Biofuels Corp. plant in Cagayan de Oro City with a yearly production of 40 million liters.

The new plants will add 164 million liters to the 39 million liters of bioethanol currently produced each year by the Leyte Agri Corp. in Ormoc City (9 million liters) and San Carlos Bioenergy in San Carlos, Negros Occidental (30 million liters).

The Ormoc plant, which started in mid-2008, is the country’s first bioethanol plant, followed by San Carlos which started operations last March.

The San Carlos plant exclusively supplies Petron while the one in Leyte produces for Shell, Chevron, Jeti and other small players.

With a total of 209 million liters a year from existing and planned distilleries, production is still far behind the 461 million liters needed for the country to comply with the Biofuels Law that mandates a 10-percent bioethanol mix for all fuel grades by 2011.

To reach that target, about 14 bioethanol distilleries, with an annual capacity of about 30 million liters each, are needed.

Because the country is lagging far behind targets, "construction of new plants should start early next year," says Mario C. Marasigan, director of the Renewable Energy Management Bureau, Department of Energy (DOE).

Other prospective bioethanol distilleries may rise in Tarlac, Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Norte, Misamis Oriental and Pangasinan – all using sugarcane feedstock. Distilleries using molasses may be constructed in Negros Occidental and Bataan and those utilizing cassava, in Zambales, Saranggani, Misamis Oriental and Sultan Kudarat.

Bioethanol is a high-octane, water-free alcohol which can be used as fuel. It is produced from the fermentation of sugar or converted starch from common crops.

Including the Philippines, 12 countries now produce and use bioethanol. One-third of cars in Brazil, for example, use pure bioethanol as fuel, while two-thirds use a mix with gasoline.

The DOE says bioethanol’s advantage include better mileage, cleaner air emissions – and an additional 87,000 jobs for sugar planters and distilleries.

And it is relatively cheaper. At the height of the gasoline price increase last year, bioethanol blend was selling at least P1.50 to P2 cheaper than gasoline.

The 5-percent bioethanol blend mandated this year, according to the DOE, is expected to displace 208 million liters of gasoline worth $108.22 million in foreign exchange savings (based on 2007 average import price for refined gasoline).

A mandatory 10-percent blend in 2011 year would result in a gasoline displacement of 460 million liters worth about $240 million in dollar savings.

Biofuels – bioethanol from sugarcane and biodiesel from coconut – compose just 0.15 percent of the country’s primary energy mix.

Sugarcane, the fifth major crop in terms of area planted, is the major source of feedstock followed by molasses. Leyte Agri Corp. and Roxol Bioenergy are using molasses as feedstock. Feedstock comprises about 70 percent of the total cost of bioethanol production.

Sugarcane yields an average of 65 metric tons per hectare (MT/ha.) in crop year 2007-2008, with an estimated yield of 4,550 liters of bioethanol per hectare per year (ha./yr.).

Sweet sorghum has higher sugar content, requires less water than sugarcane and adapts to various soil conditions. Sweet sorghum yield is about 50 MT/ha., producing 6,000 liters of bioethanol per hectare per year

Sweet sorghum appears to have a higher yield because of two croppings a year against the single cropping for sugarcane. It is on the experimental stage; one disadvantage is that its sugar content deteriorates faster than that of sugarcane.

Another source is cassava which yields 7.75 MT/ha., producing 1,395 liters per hectare per year.

Cassava is ideal but requires bigger hectarage than sugarcane to produce the same amount of bioethanol. Which is why sugarcane is preferred although cassava is viable in marginal lands in Mindanao not suited for sugar plantations.

To prevent conflict with food security, the National Biofuels Board has banned the planting of crops used as biofuels on irrigated and ecologically fragile land as well as farms devoted to rice, corn, grains and cereals.

"There really is no problem when it comes to food security because policy safeguards are in place," says Rosemarie S.Gumera, head of the Planning and Policy Department, Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

SRA has promulgated a policy to safeguard the viability of the country’s 30 sugar mills, she says, adding the SRA certifies first the utilization of existing sugarcane plantations for bioethanol.

"We also have surplus sugar production, which is about 11 percent in crop year 2008-2009," Gumera says, "and we are encouraging the expansion of sugar farms, partly to fill the need for bioethanol feedstock."

Starting next year, for example, sugarcane will be planted in 11,000 has. of cogon land to supply the Isabela distillery.

Some 8.8 million idle lands are potential expansion sites for sugarcane farms.

Since 2002-2003 the country has been a net exporter of sugar. "Luckily, sugarcane farmers are enjoying good returns because sugar is now expensive in the world market which in a way, influences the prices domestically," Gumera says.

Sugar fetches 22 US cents a pound, the highest in 28 years.

"The current attractive price may not be permanent," Gumera says, "which is why we should be prepared for the bad times, especially when sugar from Thailand comes in."

By 2015, under the Asean Free Trade Agreement, tariff for Thai sugar will be reduced from the current 38 percent to just 5 percent, posing a threat to local producers.

　

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