RDC-10 endorses P39-million infra support package for Bukidnon Ethanol Plant
Mike Banos
December 29, 2006
During a public hearing held at the Kibawe municipal gymnasium recently, government officials said the project would be called South Bukidnon Bioenergy, Inc. (SBBI). The company's website says the ethanol plant would consist of a cane mill (to mill the cane and forward clarified cane juice to the distillery), distillery, an eight megawatt (8MW) cogeneration power plant and a CO2 (carbon dioxide) plant. The distillery will use sugar cane as feedstock crushed onsite while the cogeneration plant will use bagasse or sugarcane pulp as fuel.
The plant is slated to start operations by the second half of 2007 with a production capacity of 25 million liters of ethanol annually (150,000 liters per day). It will supply ethanol as fuel to the transport sector, electricity to the Mindanao power grid and carbon dioxide to the beverage industry starting 2008.
SBBI is a joint venture of Bronzeoak Philippines Inc. (BPI), the state-owned National Development Corp. (NDC) and three groups of Bukidnon sugar planters. British firm Bronzeoak Ltd., through its local unit BPI will construct the dedicated ethanol plant in Kibawe, Bukidnon.
BPI is a Philippine company jointly owned by Zabaleta & Co (Philippines) and Bronzeoak Limited (UK). It was established in June 2003 for the purpose of developing biomass new renewable energy projects in the Philippines.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 10 has conducted the Public Scoping for the Environmental Impact Assessment as part of the requirements for the issuance of an Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC).
The infrastructure support package endorsed by RDC-10 would provide all-weather farm to market roads and permanent bridges needed to ensure the sustainable commercial production of ethanol as a biofuel, the production of which is one of the priority agenda of the national government following the approval of the Bio-Fuels bill by the congressional bicameral conference committee on energy last Nov. 23 which makes the use of biofuels mandatory.
Most of the plant's cane supply would be sourced from the municipalities of Dancagan, Kitaotao, Kadingilan and Damulog.
The P39-million infrastructure support package endorsed by RDC-10 includes two presidential type steel bridges (Pulangui and Metebagao in Kibawe) and four (4) farm-to-market roads (White Kulaman-Sagundanon, Natulongan-Kikipot-Magsaysay, Natulongan-Bukang Liwayway, and Bukang Liwayway-Cagawasan-Sampaguita-Magsaysay).
Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (3rd District, Bukidnon) authored the Bio-Fuels bill in Congress proposing a mix of five percent ethanol and 95 percent gasoline within two years after the Bio-Fuel bill is passed, increasing the proportion to 10 percent by the fourth year.
Bukidnon, a major produce of sugar and sugarcane, is one of the identified areas for the ethanol program. The Philippines' first ethanol plant was constructed in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
According to a PIA report, once operational, the plant would boost the livelihood of local sugar cane farmers. The plant would require 8,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation to sustain its operations. Each ton of sugarcane is estimated to cost PhP1,700.
Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, the key ingredient of alcoholic drinks, is a high-performance motor fuel that cuts polluting emissions normally associated with petroleum based products. It is made by fermenting and then distilling starch and sugar crops like corn, sorghum, potatoes, wheat and sugar cane.
Ethanol is usually blended with gasoline at 10 percent, but can be used at a higher mixture. Brazil, the world leader in ethanol with an annual output of 15 billion liters, blends as much as 24 percent.
Engines can be designed to run on pure ethanol. Henry Ford designed the famous Model T to run on alcohol, describing it as the "fuel of the future". Around 40 percent of cars in Brazil use 100% ethanol.
DENR -10 Regional Executive Director Maximino Dichoso said. "Fuel ethanol is one of the fuel alternatives we need. DENR will help investors here in Bukidnon and will support the program.
If the necessary documents for ECC would be endorsed to us at the soonest time, we assure that the ECC will be given for the plant within a month."
SBBI Project Manager Reden Rodriguez said that the project is the first in a series of fuel ethanol and cogeneration plants planned for Mindanao.
Projects that are currently under development include cogeneration plants ranging in size from 50MW to 25MW fuelled by sugar cane bagasse, cane residue and woodchip from dedicated plantations.
The plants will be co-located with the sugar mills that would supply the majority of the bagasse required, and they are designed to provide that mill with all their process steam and electrical power requirements and to export surplus electricity to the transmission and distribution systems in adjacent areas.
Bronzeoak Philippines Inc has two subsidiary project companies, Talisay Bioenergy Inc and Victorias Bioenergy Inc. It also has a subsidiary fuel supply company, Biofuel Resources Inc.
30-
Print
Email
