German biogas and biomass investors

German biogas and biomass investors are willing to fund projects in the Philippines given the country's huge potential of this sector.

A business forum organized by the ECCP, in coordination with the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammernarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI), on biogas and biomass, was attended by more than 200 Filipino representatives from the sector and officials of eight German companies Monday.

European Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECCP) Vice President Marshal Beck, in a briefing Wednesday, said he has received positive feedbacks from the representatives of the German companies.

"They were really happy with the quality of the projects that they were informed about," he said.

Beck said the sector will greatly benefit from the huge interest of the foreign investors who bid to provide latest technology and all the necessary capital investments.

"They are aware that there are very good projects here…They are willing to partially finance some projects. The banks are also willing to extend loans so there are all the ingredients to start biomass, biogass projects in the country this year," he said.

Sources of biogas include the manure of hogs and poultry while biomass sources include bagasse or the left over after the sugar case has been extracted of its juice and rice husks.

The German companies that sent representatives to the forum are Vastani GmgH, Eckrohrkessel GmbH, Envitec Biogas AG, GTP Solutions GmbH, Binder GmbH, Ascentec GmbH, Novis GmbH, and Pregobello GmbH.

Representatives of these companies are scheduled to visit some biomass and biogas projects in Southern Luzon during the week to check the sites and see the challenges and possible ways to improve the sector.

Beck said representatives from four out of the eight companies are offering good technologies for small biogas plants, which has a capacity of 25kW to 1MW.