PHL mulls producing sweet ethanol

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine National Oil Co.—Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC) is looking at investing into producing the first commercial scale sweet sorghum-based ethanol, as it is exploratory talks to establish a 1,000-hectare sweet sorghum plantation in Negros Occidental.

The sweet sorghum production will require P45 million to P75 million investment at a P30,000 to P50,000 per hectare production cost.

The cane will be used to produce sweet sorghum syrup for ethanol production at the San Carlos Bioenergy Inc., (SCBI) plant in San Carlos city in Negros Occidental.

At a yield of 2,500 liters per hectare, 1,000 hectares can produce as much as 2.5 million liters of ethanol per year.

The likelihood of PNOC’s supporting the plantation program anchors on the fact that sweet sorghum is very competitive as bioethanol feedstock as studied by UPLB and Mariano Marcos State University ((MMSU) team, according to Prof. Rex B. Demafelis, University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) Alternative Energy Research, Development, and Extension (RDE) Convenor and Chairman of UPLB Energy Systems Committee.

This commercial production is expected to come after several years of agronomic research and inter-agency coordination funded by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR).

“It was my TOR ((terms of reference) with BAR Director (Nicomedes) Eleazar to facilitate the mainstreaming of sweet sorghum as a complementary feedstock for bioethanol, said Demafelis.

When realized, the plantation will generate jobs either in an available upland in San Carlos City or or in adjacent municipalities.

“The challenge to farmers is to plant sweet sorghum as against sugarcane. This is a perfect complement crop to sugarcane because the identified uplands have not been planted at all with sugarcane, so now people will start earning from them,” said Demafelis.

At an estimated 50 per MT of stalk yield plus three MT of grain yield per hectare per cropping, this will give farmers an estimated additional P60,000- P80,000 net earnings per year.

There is a need to introduce an alternative feedstock to sugarcane for ethanol production due to the erratic changes in the price of sugar, consequently sugarcane.

The commercial plantation in Negros will stabilize feed supply for the plant. “We're trying to do this because the price of sugar in the market is very volatile, and we need to help produce the feedstock.”

Because of the high price of sugar in the world market before, farmers in northern Negros would rather sell their cane for sugar production rather than for ethanol, said Demafelis.

Cane price for sugar production had reached as high as P2,200 per metric ton (MT), while an ethanol distillery can only offer P1,550 per MT.

With sweet sorghum ethanol, the Philippines may be able to become competitive with imported ethanol whose price was reported before to have reached P38 per liter from Brazil, although price has hit a lower P32 to P32 per liter and even a low of P23 few years back.

At present, the country has 69 million liters per year (MLPY) of plant ethanol combined capacities which is fed by sugarcane-based material (syrup or molasses) by 100 percent.

It includes 30 MLPY each from SCBI Inc. and Roxol Bioenergy Corp. (RBC), both in Negros Occidental, and Leyte Agro-Industrial Corp. has a nine MLPY plant in Leyte.

It is used to produce syrup for sweetening, vinegar, wine, and other food products.

The Philippines just implemented on August 6 a 10 percent mandated mix of bioethanol with gasoline for selected octane levels.

This sends the country's total ethanol requirement to approximately 400 million liters per year. The ethanol demand in the country is estimated to be 645 million liters in 2015 if a 15 percent ethanol-gas mix will be mandated as per a study of Japan International Cooperation Agency. 

This will displace the projected 645 million liters of petroleum-based fuel by 2015.

Foreign exchange savings was placed at $218.203 million in 2010. This is predicted to rise to US$789.3 million in 2015 and US$1.274 billlion in in 2020. Given this demand, bioethanol has the potential to generate jobs totalling to 179,386 by 2015 and 289,611 by 2020.

Other alternative materials being considered feedstock for ethanol are cassava and corn; cellulosic materials, grasses, agricultural waste material, forest waste, and residues; and macro algae.— (FREEMAN)