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Friday, June 03, 2005
Pena: Ethanol
By Rox Peña
With skyrocketing prices and a known reserve of only 40 years of crude oil, development of biofuels is the right direction to take.
THE Philippines' first ethanol plant will soon rise in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. The P1.5-billion plant, which will be operational by the second half of 2007, is a joint venture of Bronzeoak Philippines Inc., the National Development Corporation and three groups of Sugar Planters. It has a capacity of 25 million liters of ethanol per year.
Ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the key ingredient of alcoholic drinks, is a high performance motor fuel that cuts poisonous emissions and is better for the environment. It is made by fermenting and then distilling starch and sugar crops like corn, sorghum, potatoes, wheat and sugar cane. In France, ethanol is made from grapes of insufficient quality for wine production. The San Carlos Plant will use around 300,000 tons of sugar cane.
Ethanol is usually blended with gasoline at 10%, but it can be used at a higher mixture. Brazil, the world leader in ethanol with an annual output of 15 billion liters, blends as much as 24%. Engines can be designed to run on pure ethanol. Henry Ford designed the famous Model T to run on alcohol, saying it is the "fuel of the future". Around 40% of cars in Brazil use 100% ethanol.
Some of the benefits of ethanol are:
• It is renewable fuel produced from agricultural products;
• It is not a fossil fuel thus producing and burning it does not increase the green house effect;
• Ethanol blends can be used in all petrol engines without modifications;
• It is biodegradable, thus has no harmful effects on the environment;
• It significantly reduces harmful exhaust emissions;
• Its high oxygen content results in more efficient combustion thus reduces pollutant emissions like carbon monoxide by 25-30% according to the US EPA;
• Ethanol blends also reduce emissions of hydrocarbons, a major contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer;
• Sulphur Dioxide and Particulate Matter emissions are significantly reduced with ethanol;
• When ethanol is added to gasoline, the octane rating is increased by three points, without using harmful additives; and
• As an octane enhancer, ethanol can cut emissions of cancer causing Benzene and butadiene by more than 50%.
In addition to these benefits, using locally produced ethanol will reduce our dependence on imported oil. The plant that will be put up in San Carlos City will create additional jobs and will absorb the excess output of the sugar industry.
At present, there is a pending bill in Congress authored by Representative Juan Miguel Zubiri that would mandate the use of ethanol as a mix with transport fuel. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she would certify this bill as urgent.
Another good thing about the San Carlos City plant is that the residual waste, bagasse, will be used as fuel for a nine-megawatt power plant. One of the partners, Bronzeoak, is a world leader in the development of biomass energy projects. They have constructed several power plants in the Philippines utilizing bagasse, cane residues, wood chips and rice husk as fuel. Another by-product, carbon dioxide, will be sold to beverage companies.
Our country is really blessed with potential sources of indigenous transport fuel. Apart from sugar cane, we have abundant supply of coconut that can be used to produce coco-diesel. Coco-diesel is another environmentally friendly fuel that can decrease smoke emissions by around 70%. We are already producing this fuel. President Arroyo has issued a directive last year to all government offices to use a 1% blend of coco-diesel.
With skyrocketing prices and a known reserve of only 40 years of crude oil, development of biofuels is the right direction to take.
(June 3, 2005 issue)
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