February 1, 2015
Manila Standard Today, By Alena Mae S. Flores
Ethanol production in the Philippines doubled to 222 million liters in 2014 from 114 million liters in 2013, following the entry of three new producers, the Sugar Regulatory Administration said.
SRA manager for policy and planning Rosemarie Gumera, however, said while there was a substantial increase in local production, national output still fell short of the annual demand of “a little less than 400 million liters.”
Ethanol is made from agricultural crops such as sugar and is used in the gasoline blend. The Biofuels Act of 2006 mandated a 10-percent ethanol blend in gasoline.
Gumera said local ethanol production steadily increased from 71.5 million liters in 2013.
She said Universal Robina Corp.’s new 30-million-liter ethanol facility in Negros Oriental, Kooll Company’s 12-million-liter plant in Negros Occidental and Far East Alcohol’s facility in Pampanga with 15-million-liter capacity contributed to the increase in production.
URC controlled by the Gokongwei Group earlier announced it received its first fuel ethanol order from independent oil player Flying V.
URC agreed to supply Flying V with fuel-grade anhydrous ethanol suitable for gasoline blending under an agreement signed on Dec. 8.
The Energy Department directed oil companies to purchase ethanol from local producers before resorting to importation.
URC will supply Flying V with ethanol from its newly inaugurated plant in Barangay Tamisu, Bais City in Negros Oriental. The facility has a rated production capacity of 100,000 liters a day of fuel-grade ethanol using sugar molasses generated from three sugar mills in Negros.
Other ethanol producers in the country are Leyte Agri Corp., San Carlos Bioenergy Corp., Roxol Bioenergy and Green Futures Innovations.
Gumera said Green Futures was the country’s biggest ethanol producer with 54-million-liter capacity but was not able to deliver its full capacity last year due to “operational problems.”
Roxol produced the largest volume in 2014 amounting to 35 million liters, she said.
Some sectors in the oil sector, however, asked the government to revisit the Biofuels Law, as ethanol production remained short of demand.
Oil companies are currently importing bulk of their requirements to comply with the government’s E10 requirement for gasoline.
Sources said with most of the oil companies’ ethanol requirements sourced overseas, the Biofuels Law failed to achieve some of its goals, such as to lessen the country’s dependence on high-priced imported fuel, create economic opportunities and spur countryside development.
“Local production is not enough even at 5-percent ethanol blending for total annual gasoline volumes. What more at 10 percent of volume? Ever since the Biofuels Law was passed in 2007, oil companies have been importing ethanol to comply with the government’s mandate. How are we helping farmers, when we import 70 to 80 percent of our ethanol requirements abroad? Despite a captive market, local production is grossly insufficient. We are basically replacing imported gasoline with imported ethanol,” sources said.
Reference: http://goo.gl/Ns3YGu