Eastern Petroleum Corp (EPC), a small oil player in the Philippines, announced that they will construct a 200,000 Liter/day Ethanol Distillery in the Province of Sarangani in Mindanao next year. Q1 of 2009 is when they are expecting the plant to be finished. The plant will be a joint venture program with some other partners.
EPC signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) last May with Guanxi Estates for the development of some 10,000 hectares of land for biofuel production. The MOA they signed is for the production of 400 million liters of bioethanol in 2010 in preparation for the implementation of E-10 blend.
In line with this EPC chairman and president Fernando Martinez said that they have started planting the feedstock for the plant, which will be cassava, in a 2,000-hectare plantation. Mr. Martinez said that cassava is the best feedstock to produce bioethanol. Because of the yields that can be gained which is between 50 to 70% for the “superior stock” of cassava in the Philippines. Not sure what he means by that, but considering that the price of Cassava (P1-2/kg) is less volatile than sugar and not so easily influenced, that alone would make it ideal for biofuel feedstock consideration.
Good choice by EPC to setup in Mindanao, considering that the island has year long good weather, free from the typhoons that ravage the country yearly. Cassava would be ideal too in Sarangani since the plant isn’t that sensitive to low rainfall, which is something that doesn’t happen much in Sarangani. So if you decide to plant water hungry plants in Sarangani I’d suggest that you stick close to sources of water and invest heavily in irrigation.
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Category: Bioethanol, Asia
