Lotilla hails NDC involvement in ethanol program

Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla has lauded the 40 percent equity investment in the proposed fuel ethanol project in San Carlos, Negros Occidental by the state-owned National Development Co. (NDC), in joint venture with Bronzeoak Philippines.

The joint venture company, San Carlos Bio-Energy Inc. (SCBI), will develop and operate an integrated facility for ethanol production in San Carlos City in Negros. Bronzeoak will control the remaining 60 percent of the joint venture.

Lotilla said SCBI and the fuel ethanol project will support the government’s National Fuel Ethanol Program, which aims to develop and utilize bioethanol fuels.

"Promotion and widespread utilization of ethanol and other biofuels as alternative transport fuel would certainly help the transport sector mitigate the impact of rising oil prices," Lotilla said.

Aside from developing alternative fuels, the SCBI ethanol project will enhance the viability of the local sugar industry and help in alleviating the plight of the sugar farmers, Lotilla added.

"We are developing our indigenous energy resources, particularly renewables, and at the same time expanding the market for our sugar," Lotilla said.

The government’s ethanol program aims to intensify the use of biofuels in the transport sector by blending a minimum of five percent bioethanol fuel into all gasoline-fed motor vehicles and a minimum of one percent biodiesel into all diesel-fed motor vehicles.

Ethanol is an alternative energy resource produced from crops such as corn, grain sorghum, wheat, sugar and other agricultural feedstocks. It can be used as a transportation fuel in three ways – as a blend to gasoline, a component of reformulated gasoline, or a primary fuel with gasoline as blend.

The SCBI integrated facility will reportedly have a cane milling plant with a through-put capacity of 1,500 metric tons of cane daily and a co-generation power plant that will have a production of about nine megawatts. It has likewise a distillery plant which will also produce 100,000 liters of bio-ethanol a day.

The National Fuel Ethanol Program encourages private entities to invest in the production of biofuels and distribution of biofuel blends.

The government is aiming to enhance the country’s energy self-sufficiency level to 60 percent by 2010.

While the transport sector is still heavily dependent on imported oil, the country has steadily reduced its reliance on imported oil as energy source. Last year, the DOE spearheaded the introduction of coco methyl ester (CME) as an alternative transport fuel.

DOE is now preparing for the launch of the compressed natural gas (CNG) project as fuel for the initial 200 buses which will ply the Manila-Batangas route later this year.

Lotilla said the program will be expanded to 3,000 buses in the next 18 months.