Toledo, Marivic D. Term Paper
STS 1 Group 6 March 27, 2015
Biofuel: Ethanol Production in the Philippines
Energy production in the Philippines is not as rich as it may seem. Given the fluctuating increase and decrease of electric supply and the formidable cost of fuels and petroleum imported from other countries, it is safe to say that an alternative source is one the best ways to solve the dilemma given the up-downhill state of the country.
Oil, an example of this energy is in a non-renewable form. Once the crust gets emptied of its source, it cannot be formed back neither recycled. Having transportation a necessity, it is much obvious that the country's unsustainable oil supply is satisfied by importation. At least 53% of our annual diesel fuel imports are used for transport, a percentage that is so high and unusual and unique to the Philippines (Alvarez, n.d.).
Biofuel, a renewable fuel that is derived from biological matter was first used during the industrial revolution. It was widely used during the era's early stages but somewhere in 1860s to 20th century arise petroleum and gasoline as fuel source. Compared to biofuel itself, these forms of oil are preferably less expensive in the global market hence, much fitted as product for masses. It is however, still used as additives in fuels to safely improve fuel octane (Kovarik, 2013). Comparably, biofuels are made from plant produce including vegetables, crops, and even woods. The word "biofuel" refers to bioethanol and biodiesel and other fuels made from biomass and primarily used for motive, thermal and power generation with quality specifications in accordance with the Philippine National Standards (PNS). In the country, sugarcane is the most predominant source of ethanol although feed stocks such as corn and cassava can also be used. But since Philippines is a sugar-producing country, it has been so.
In 2007, Philippines including 10 other ASEAN members including China, India, Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand have signed the Cebu Declaration on the East Asian Energy Security Pact held in the country. Each country involved agreed reduce fossil fuel dependence and promote cleaner energy source through biofuel development. In 2004, Philippines have reached approximately 106.5 million barrels of fuel oil in demand for imported fossil fuel (Biofuels by Region, 2015).
In early 20th century, biofuel became economically attractive in developing nations with available sugarcane production as an aid to the high cost of fossil fuel imports and this includes Philippines. Apparently, prior to this demand, ethanol production was in existence already during World War II. But since there is an increasing availability of cheap oil from Middle East, alternative programs on ethanol production has been abandoned. It is said that continuing the production is far more costly than importing oils from Middle East (Kovarik, 2013).
Years advance, the country continued to import oil, negligible of of price hikes or roll downs. Continual dependence on oil importation will consume a relatively large portion of funds. Regarding this concern, the Philippines Biofuels Act of 2006 (Republic Act 9367) was mandated and took effect in 2007 to reduce dependence on imported fuels with due regard to the protection of public health, the environment, and the natural ecosystems consistent with the country's sustainable economic growth that would expand opportunities for livelihood.
This act mandates the local production of biodiesel and bioethanol, an example of biofuel and ensures captive market for biofuels, zero specific tax on local components in the area of production and exemption of value added tax (VAT) on the sales of raw materials. In addition, Republic Act No. 9275 otherwise known as the Philippine Clean Water Act is held together along with RA 9367 for the exemption of all water effluents on this technology from waste water charges. In Section 6 – Incentive Scheme, it is guided accordingly that financial assistance should be made available for any citizen or entities that will engage in the production (Asienhaus, n.d.).
These years, based on a study of biofuels in the Philippines entitled "Food or Fuel – A Choice for Survival", there are at least 21 companies who targeted several hectares for bioethanol production; some with existing plantation and others which are ready to put up production plants. There is a grand total of 1,051,350 million hectares for biodiesel and bioethanol feedstock production identified. All of it composed of a portion in every region.
On crop year 2011-2012, there is a number of four (4) bioethanol distillers in the country, with the total annual rated capacity of 133 million liters. In Luzon, there is one distillery/bioethanol distillery located at Cagayan/Isabela composing of 11,000 hectares. In Visayas, there are three bioethanol distilleries. San Carlos located at Negros is a bioethanol production area composed of 5,000 hectares. In addition to these four, other target areas are set for bioethanol development. These target areas are Pampanga Bioenergy (7,000 heactares), Cavite Biofuels (7,000 hectares), and Canlaon Alcogreen (5,000 hectares) (Martin, 2012).
Negros Occidental tagged as the Renewable Energy Capital of the Philippines is developing various forms of renewable resources. One of these is bioethanol. It is the very first sugarcane to ethanol plant in the Philippines and in South East Asia and it started operation on San Carlos City, Negros Occidental in the year 2009. It is owned by San Carlos Bioenergy. The plant has the capacity to produce 125, 000 liters of bioethanol per day and also produces 8 Mega Watts of power from bagasse (Reyes, 2014). Being the sugarcane capital of the country, the province is considered as the best location for ethanol plantation.
San Carlos Bioenergy, Inc. (SCBI) was incorporated in May 2005 to construct, own and operate in integrated bioethanol distillery and power-cogeneration facility. It uses sugarcane as its feedstock. In this establishment, the Philippinies was marked as the First Fuel Bioethanol and Co-generation Facility in South East Asian history (San Carlos Bioenergy, Inc., 2008).
Last 2013, the province made a new development on bioethanol production. It is to use sweet sorghum as bioethanol feedstock and establishing sweet sorghum plantations. Sweet sorghum is syrup made from the juice of some varieties of cereal crops. This is an aid to the increasing biethanol-gasoline blend this 2015, reaching almost 15% (Business Diary, 2015). It serves as an alternative feedstock because it is a non-resistant crop and has three higher harvesting yield within a year compared to sugarcane. Sweet sorghum can have three harvest points in a year compared to sugarcane having only two. Having its high potential income, more farmers are becoming interested in planting sweet sorghum.
SCBI, like any other business groups, encountered many challenges since its establishment. One of which is the disposal of its by-product or waste water or "spent wash". To address this, they invested more than P100 in spent wash evaporator and since it is organic, it's been also used in irrigation. As aid to the existing peculiar smell of its facilities, they installed pipes for safe transfer of excess water and as a long term solution included waste water treatment (SCBI, 2014).
In this recent advancement, there is a decline in the country's dependence on oil imports. Since the country was able to establish plants such as bioethanol plantation, there is an additional yield of oil produce. In addition, since new plantations were built and land areas are covered for bioethanol production, non-employed people such as farmers and other capable citizens are able to generate jobs due to the establishment of plants. Moreover, this will be opening up about a thousand and better paying market for farmers producing products such as coconut, sugarcane, and cassava that are used in biofuel production. Government financial institutions such as Land Bank of the Philippines also extend the finance of all involved citizen and entities according to RA 9367 (Alvarez, n.d.). The money will go into nursery development, crop protection, irrigation, training, information programs, information technology development, farm-to-market roads construction, market development, research and development, and general support for the program.
Aside from these economical advantage, it aims to enhance the quality of the environment since biofuels, a form of alternative source of energy are considered clean fuels. Meaning, it do not emit pollutants such as in gasoline or ordinary diesel fuel. Hence, it is safer to use. Moreover, according to Senator Santiago, the blend inhibits engine malfunction. Since ethanol has high oxygen content, there is a complete burning of the fuel, hence, reducing hydrocarbon emission.
Possible problems regarding land and water supply have been taken efforts by the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 or RA 9275 to protect the water bodies from pollution from land-based sources.
As per Biofuels Act (RA 9367), a quota has been set to achieve in ethanol production. It requires a minimum of 5% blend of ethanol and supply of millions of liters of bioethanol per year. In 2013, a 10% blend was established and this year (2015), according to JICA, a 15% ethanol blend is projected. Achieving such high limit and to fulfill the requirement mandated by the law, an increase on feedstock (cassava, sugars, etc,) production is immediately needed.
In this regard, the Department of Agriculture pegged a total of 660,000 hectares to meet the mandated biofuels blend.
"But based on the Department of Agriculture through the Convergence Initiative, (result of the JAO1-2008) it has intensified and targetted their campaign effort and have generated investor interest in 38 biofuels projects requiring some 944,800 hectares and to date there is about 17,222 hectares planted to agrofuels crop" (Asienhaus, n.d.)
It shows that the concerned department exceeded the desired amount of land leaving a problem on what can be produced out of the excess hectarage. In 2002-2003, a sugar surplus production has been observed which results to lower sugar selling price. In the short run, the choice of farmers to rather supply bioethanol refineries instead of sugar millers has been worried since it this will most probably cause temporary shortage in sugar. To inhibit this, the law proponents posit that since there will be an increase in demand, there is a need to increase the sugarcane supply. The problem on whether sugarcane is a food or biofuel feedstock has been concerned as well. But according to Senator Santiago, there are two different markets included in the field. One is the sugar production and the other is bioethanol production, hence, competition is most unlikely to occur (Alvarez, n.d.).
The current process for ethanol extraction or distillation from appropriate feedstocks involves the process of milling proceeded by liquefaction to extract liquid contents and nutrients. In case of sweet sorghum which is already syrup is no longer milled. After this process are saccharification and fermentation where enzymes are introduced to break the bonds between the sugar molecules to reduce it to its components. Through distillation, the ethanol is isolated from the water through vaporization. Since ethanol has lesser density than water, it will vaporize first and will undergo condensation to return to its liquid phase. This is the process on how ethanol is extracted from feedstocks. In the near future, an easier mode on extraction/distillation is designed. In the proposed process, the involved processes on the previous set up will be done simultaneously. In this manner, more percentage of ethanol yields will be garnered.
Bioethanol production is one effective alternative for pure gasoline and diesel. Aside from its environmental advantage, blending the fuels with such biofuel increases the yield of oil that is served in the market. Provided that in this development, the natural resources are not risked and developers must take into account that the feedstock, aside from its bioethanol production use is of many different purpose as of human necessities.
Bibliography
Alvarez, J. S. (n.d.). Biofuels_Act.pdf. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from ustlawreview: http://ustlawreview.com/pdf/vol.III/Biofuels_Act.pdf.
Asienhaus. (n.d.). Food or Fuel - A Choice of Survival. Retrieved March 5, 2015, from https://www.asienhaus.de/public/archiv/4_Food_or_Fuel.pdf.
Biofuels by Region. (2015). Retrieved March 5, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuels_by_region.
Business Diary. (2015). Investments in 500-1,000-hectare sweet sorghum plantation eyed for the San Carlos Bioenergy facility in Negros Occidental. Retrieved from Business Diary: http://businessdiary.com.ph/4231/investments-in-500-1000-hectare-sweet-sorghum-plantation-eyed-for-the-san-carlos-bioenergy-facility-in-negros-occidental/.
Kovarik, B. (2013). Environmental history / biofuels. Retrieved February 2015, from http://www.environmentalhistory.org/billkovarik/about-bk/research/cabi/.
Martin, M. R. (2012). Retrieved March 4, 2015, from Sugar Regulatory Administration: http://www.sra.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/12/BDO_092812.pdf.
Reyes, G. (2014). Negros Occidental, the Renewable Energy Capital of the Philippines. Retrieved from experienceNegros.com.
San Carlos Bioenergy, Inc.: About Us. (2008). Retrieved from San Carlos Bioenergy, Inc.: http://scbiph.com/.
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SCBI. (2014). San Carlos Bioenergy Addresses Existing Challenges. Retrieved from San Carlos City Interactive: http://www.sancarloscity.org/news/san-carlos-bioenergy-addresses-existing-challenges.
An Act to Direct the Use of Biofuels, Establishing for this Purpose the Biofuel Program, Appropriating Funds Therefore, and for Other Purposes, Republic Act No. 9367, §3 (f) (2006).
