P1.5 Billion ethanol-production facility to be set up next year
Posted on September 12th, 2009
“We will replicate what we have with the San Carlos Bioenergy Inc (SCBI) It’s much easier so we will incur lower costs. We have three identified areas but we don’t want to reveal.†These were the words of SCBI chair Jose Maria T. Zabaleta as he announced that Bronzeoak Philippines will be investing P1.5 billion to construct a second ethanol production plant on June next year.
British firm Bronzeoak Ltd. established Bronzeoak Philippines in 2003 together with the Zabaleta group. According to Zabaleta, Bronzeoak would still be the developer of the proposed facility and was considering partners for the project.
SCBI established the first integrated fuel ethanol distillery and power cogeneration facility in the country last year. The plant has a capacity of 30 million liters a year, and it is one of the only two companies that produce ethanol locally, the other one being Leyte Agri Corp.
The facility is said to displace 15% of the country’s imported petroleum, based on a 5% blending mandate to be implemented from 2009 to 2011.
Zabaleta said the second proposed facility would be having an estimated capacity of 40 million liters a year and would include putting up a cogeneration power plant that would produce around megawatts of electricity. He added that they are looking to tap financing from the Development Bank of the Philippines.
SCBI, together with the Leyte Agri Corp. facility, has a combined 39 million liters a year production, which is still a far cry from the local demand of 208 million liters.
The Biofuel Law requires all oil companies to pre-blend 5% ethanol in gasoline-fueled vehicles starting February 2009. This would then be increased to 10% by 2011. Most oil companies however, have already began pre-blending 10% ethanol in their gasoline products as early as May 2008, which is way ahead of what the law required.
