Philippines cultivates cassava for ethanol
Filed from Singapore 10/29/2007 11:15:26 AM GMT
Philipines
PHILIPPINES: Filipino Eastern Petroleum and Chinese Guanxi Estates plan
to invest US$30 million in an ethanol plant that will produce 200,000
litres of the biofuel from cassava in the southern Saranggani province,
according to media reports. The partners will sign a joint venture
agreement for the plant soon. Construction on the new plant will begin
in the last quarter of 2008, with the aim of commencing commercial
production in 2010.
Fernando Martinez, president of Eastern Petroleum, said the two
companies have already developed 4,942 acres of cassava plantation in
Saranggani province. Martinez is encouraging the other countries in the
East Asian Growth Area, including Indonesia and Cambodia, to cultivate
cassava in order to secure a stable supply of the feedstock.
The requirement for ethanol, according to Martinez, is only 60 million
litres of ethanol, "but by 2009, we will need 300 million litres of
ethanol," he said. "So we will just need filling around 20 per cent or
less of the market. We have to put it there, including the ethanol
plant. It does not make sense that we just import the feedstock."
The Philippines in 2006 passed a law requiring that all liquid fuels for
engines to contain some locally sourced biofuel within two years. Local
oil retailers complain that the country does not produce enough biofuel
to meet the law's requirement.
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