Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Bioethanol industry in the Philippines

by Danny O. Calleja

The country's bioethanol industry has the potential of generating about 180,000 jobs and generate foreign exchange savings of nearly US$ 800 million by 2015, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Over the last five years, the BAR has been funding field testing of sweet sorghum varieties in different sites in the country in the vision to make Philippines less dependent on expensive, imported ethanol oil and generate rural jobs, its director Nicomedes Eleazar said in a statement here on Tuesday.

Through this initiative, Eleazar said it is estimated that bioethanol has the potential to generate jobs totaling 179,386 by 2015 and 289,611 by 2020. It may also generate foreign exchange savings placed at US$ 789.3 million in 2015 based on a study of the National Sweet Sorghum Program (NSSP).

"Sweet sorghum is a good alternative to other ethanol feedstocks. It can stand alone as a life-giving crop to farmers in far flung areas because it is used to make many food products like juice and syrup. But we will maximize its economic value by producing ethanol from it," Eleazar said.

BAR has already obtained outstanding varieties of sweet sorghum through its partnership with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and a distillery has also been developed with the assistance from Department of Science and Technology (DOST), he said.

The machine was developed by scientist Sergio Capareda following his recent return to the country after a long stint with Texas University in the United States.

Capareda designed the distilling column and guided its fabrication, while Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) Material Science expert, Samuel Franco designed the furnace.

The NSSP, Eleazar said already sees hope of Philippines' commercial production of sweet sorghum ethanol as several large companies have also positioned themselves for its processing. Among these are Seaoil's Fuel Inc. and Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC).

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