Philippine Independent Oil Player announced that they are looking to expand and diversify their business in 2010 by going into the alternative energy while promoting the use of biofuels and energy independence for the Philippines. Alternative Energy in the form of solar, wind, compressed natural gas (CNG), biomass, etc.

The funds for this ambitious project will be P500 million and will be sourced internally, by the infusion of new capital, from profits and depreciation.
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The Department of Energy (DOE) recently gave its approval to seven biofuel projects which have a combined investment of over P7 Billion. The ramp up of biofuel production in the Philippines is in compliance with the 2007 Biofuel Law that mandates for a fixed amount of bioethanol to be mixed in the gasoline and biodiesel in the petro diesel being sold at the pumps.

The Seven Biofuel Projects are:
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There has been a lot noise these past few weeks owing to Petron President and CEO, Ramon S. Ang, publicly asking for more definite guidelines on the preparation of bioethanol from DOE because there is the high possibility that it could corrode the fuel system and valuable engine parts. Petron’s point was that if something bad happened to the car’s engines because of the bioethanol, they would be the one to receive the front end of the public’s anger because they are the ones selling the fuel to them.
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Trans-Asia Renewable Energy Corp. shared that Jatropha Curcas is not as hardy a plant as its supporters tout it to be. They said that after experimenting in their Jatropha Curcas farm at Laguna they found out that the plant actually needs a lot of water and it won’t grow in just any type of land. This in turn affects the commercial viability of the plant as a feedstock for biodiesel. With this revelation they also announced that they are dropping any plans to enter the biofuel industry.
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Petron CEO, Ramon S. Ang, urged the government to come up with clearer specifications for the bioethanol being blended with gasoline at the pumps.

He also said that the current mixture of 10% bioethanol (E10) possesses a threat to car engines because the water content in them could cause the car parts in the engines to corrode. Specifically the parts that the ethanol blended fuel is going to pass through, like the gas tank, fuel pump, carburetor or fuel injectors.
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National Biofuels Board (NBB) vice chairman and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) administrator, Rafael Coscolluela, said that the Philippines will need to build eight bioethanol plants with an average capacity of 30 million liters/year inorder to meet the required 208 million liters of bioethanol for 2009 as defined in the country’s Biofuel Law.

In line with this, the NBB is encouraging foreign investors to come in an invest in the emerging biofuel industry of the Philippines. The biofuel law itself offers fiscal and other incentives to investors in the Biofuel Industry.
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