BioDiesel News
The PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. (PAFC), the biofuels arm of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co., is pushing through with its planned jatropha development project in Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa, Palawan .
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan--The provincial government of Palawan has committed to allocate at least 30,000 hectares of land for use in the cultivation of jatropha, a plant that can be used as feedstock for biodiesel production.
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza advised yesterday Undersecretary Eleazar Quinto, Philippine Forest Corp. officer-in-charge, to double-check the details before signing the $200-million jathropa contract which Senate star witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. had drafted with an American firm.
SAN FRANCISCO – An undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been designated as president of the Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC), the position once held by Senate star witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr.
Skyrocketing crude-oil prices have sent the Philippines in a frenetic search for ways to lessen its 98-percent dependence on this imported fossil fuel. The questions are: Have we made any real progress in this quest and, if so, are we on the right track?
JATROPHA OIL may be used as industrial fuel while its viability as automotive fuel is still being determined, said the Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies, Inc., or AIPSI.
MANILA, Philippines--A Japanese firm started last month a $600-million coconut plantation project in northern Luzon.
COCONUT OIL is still the most practical choice as feedstock for biodiesel, even as the government promotes the use of non-edible crops to support the country’s growing biodiesel needs.
DAVAO CITY — A locally developed motor oil from coconut, dubbed ‘S-9’, is being planned for international market with a German entrepreneur taking charge of its marketing drive.
MANILA, Philippines -- Initial tests on locally produced biodiesel have yielded positive results, indicating that the Philippines can produce jatropha-based biodiesel that meets international standards.
THE use of the mandated 1-percent coco-biodiesel blend (B1) has significantly cut down carbon emissions in Metro Manila, according to data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
MANILA, Philippines--PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. is set to propagate jatropha, for use as biodiesel feedstock, in Mindanao.
SINGAPOREAN FIRM D1-BP Fuels Crops Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. has earned the nod of the Securities and Exchange Commission to form a Philippine corporation that will engage in the production of a biofuels crop.
PNOC-Development and Management Corp. (PNOC-DMC) plans to allocate at least P50 million to undertake a pilot jatropha plantation in Northern Mindanao by next year.
HIGH COCONUT oil prices are undercutting the country's coco biodiesel exports, with two heavy producers of coco biodiesel, or fuel-grade coco-methyl ester (CME) saying they have exported none this year.
LONDON -- The biofuels bandwagon may be running out of gas with soaring costs for feedstocks like wheat and palm oil prompting producers to shelve planned plants and cut output at existing facilities.
THE COUNTRY COULD up the ante in its alternative fuels program via "second-generation" biofuels — petroleum alternatives produced from non-food feedstock, particularly waste from agriculture and forestry.
PNOC alternative fuels Corp., A subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Co., will complete in two months its research on what variety of jatropha to propagate in the country.
A specialized facility for jatropha nut crushing has been proposed by experts so its toxic vapor can be managed and potential adverse impact on human lives and the environment can be lessened.
While it has yet to put up its pilot jatropha refinery, state-run subsidiary Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) is affirming its commitment to stick with this fuel crop in propagating the country’s biofuels program.
The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc. is putting up the country's first jatropha processing plant to encourage the use of jatropha as a biodiesel source.
Publicly-listed Chemrez Technologies, Inc. expects its earnings this year to improve significantly with the implementation of the Biofuels Act this month, a ranking company official said.
Manila, Philippines - Biofuels major Seaoil is launching today a new diesel fuel that will reduce harmful emissions from the millions of diesel cars particularly jeepneys plying the country's roads.
Japan's Marubeni has expressed interest to study potential investments in biodiesel in the Philippines even as the government is now trying to attract investments in biodiesel which will require a huge P21.7 billion in capital cost over the next years.
In a presentation during a conference on bio-fuels and feedstocks here, PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC) president Peter Abaya said they are tapping various local and foreign partners for the company's bio-diesel project.
Chemrez recently achieved a milestone in Philippine manufacturing history by becoming the first and only producer of bio-diesel to date whose Integrated Management System (IMS) was formally certified last April 10 as conforming to ISO 9001:2000 for quality management system, ISO 14001:2004 for environment management system, and OHSAS 18001:1999 for health and safety management system
There is no need to panic when it comes to the concern that coco methyl ester producers would not be able to meet the country's biodiesel requirements should a 2 percent or B2 biodiesel blend be mandated, because there are enough producers to fill in the demand, Chemrez chief operating officer Dean A. Lao Jr. told Business Mirror today.
Chemrez Technologies has decided to go the route of carbon emission credits, a much-practiced method in Europe to reduce greenhouse gasses, and has committed to sell 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide reductions, resulting in foreign currency earnings that go directly to profits.
BioEthanol News
SUGAR GROUP Roxas Holdings, Inc. will invest P1.4 billion in an ethanol distillery to take advantage of the increasing demand for clean energy, as well as add more value to its sugar production business.
MANILA, Philippines--With the construction of the San Carlos Bio-Energy Inc. ethanol plant facing delay, Petron Corp. may be forced to import its ethanol supply to be able to comply with the Biofuels Act of 2006's mandated 5-percent blend by next year.
Bronze Oak Philippines Inc. (BOPI) is planning to invest P6 billion on two ethanol-related projects.
MANILA, Philippines--INDUSTRY LEADER PETRON CORP. is expected to start offering ethanol-blended gasoline within the year, ahead of the mandated implementation of the 5-percent ethanol blend by 2009.
ALLAYING fears that biofuels production will threaten food supply and rainforests, ethanol advocacy group Philippine Fuel Ethanol Alliance (Ethanol Alliance) said Thursday that alternative feedstock and alternative technologies related to biofuels production must be explored and funded.
Basic Energy's initiative to plant 10,000 hectares of idle lands in Zamboanga del Norte which will be converted into dedicated sugarcane farms for the production of ethanol has been warmly welcomed by the provincial government. The company can even expect to receive business incentives as well as full support, said Zamboanga del Norte Gov. Rolando Yebes.
MANILA, Philippines--ETHANOL production in the country will not only present a new revenue stream to farmers but also compel them to use their lands and available resources more efficiently, according to the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines, an umbrella organization of sugar producers.
US-based E-Cane Fuel Corp. said yesterday it is willing to entertain investors who would express "strong commitment" to its $168-million ethanol processing project.
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Corn rose to a nine-month high, erasing earlier losses, after the U.S. Senate approved legislation that would more than quadruple the use of biofuels made from crops during the next 15 years.
The newly-created National Biofuels Board (NBB) is being urged to review the imposition of a five percent blend of bioethanol in gasoline as mandated under the Biofuels Act of 2006.
AMID a foreseeable delay in the start of commercial production of local ethanol plants, Sen. Miguel Zubiri, author of the Biofuels Act of 2006, said the law itself has safety measures that will sort of provide a buffer should local supply of ethanol be insufficient.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Independent oil company Eastern Petroleum Corp. is planning to construct a P1.8-billion ethanol plant with Chinese firm Guanxi State Farm, an official said.
Sugar fell the most in a week on renewed speculation that rising global production will overwhelm increased demand for the crop to make ethanol, after crude-oil prices fell from a record high this week.
Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. plans to invest between P16 billion and P20 billion in putting up 10 ethanol plants around the Philippines, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said yesterday.
Bioenergy authorities are looking into the life cycle of ethanol feedstocks and an analysis f their sustainability to determine their longer-term socio-economic and environmental impact.
Tacloban City – A Japanese company plans to set up in Leyte a $100-million bioethanol plant and a $50-million biodiesel plant.
Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued another set of guidelines, this time for the effective implementation of the standard specification for anhydrous bioethanol fuel.
Other News
BACOLOD CITY – Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri on Saturday said Negros Occidental would lead the way in alternative fuels.
Reacting to allegations that biofuels contributed to the rice crisis, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Estrella Alabastro said “this may be true in other countries” but not in the Philippines .
PARIS — Hailed until only months ago as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming, biofuels are now accused of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) proposed the use of alternative and renewable fuel to minimize the impact of the increasing price of oil in the world market that will require the adjustment of fares.
MANILA, Philippines -- Reacting to allegations that biofuel contributed to the rice crisis, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said that critics were “barking on the wrong tree.”
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Developed nations should stop paying agricultural subsidies to encourage biofuel production because the payments are making staple foods more expensive, the Asian Development Bank said Monday.
PARIS (AFP) - Hailed until only months ago as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming , biofuels are now accused of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor.
BRASILIA--Strategies to develop biofuel production without sacrificing food supplies will be one of the headline issues to be tackled at a Latin America conference by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization next week in Brasilia. .
To those playing a role in the country's emerging biofuel industry, all roads will lead to this newly-created city in northwestern Philippines in the second week of March.
There is another wonder plant in the Philippines that is being tapped for use as biofuel source in the United States .
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday maintained that he could not be held liable for conflict of interest in pushing for the Biofuels Act while he was Bukidnon representative.
There is perhaps no lawmaker as enthusiastic about biofuels as Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri.
MANILA , APRIL 7, 2008 (First of a series) While ordinary Filipinos face the threat of food shortages caused by dwindling agricultural land, sugar barons in Congress are preoccupied turning their vast haciendas and other lands into plantations to produce and process biofuels.
THERE is no need to suspend the government's biofuels program so that more agricultural lands can be devoted to the planting of rice and other food crops, according to Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
Western Visayas this week started out with major developments. Many of these were important national stories that send one in the throes of a dilemma – which one to dwell in first?
JAKARTA (AFP) - Once a golden promise in the fight against climate change , biofuels are fast losing their lustre as high demand for essential crops drives land clearing and pushes up the price of food.
GENEVA (AFP) - Biofuels are not only hurting poor consumers in Asia by driving up crop prices, they are also failing to help the region's farmers who have not been able to adapt their production to cash in on the boom, a United Nations report said on Thursday.
LOPEZ-LED FIRST Philippine Holdings Corp. is preparing to enter the emerging biofuels business, with subsidiary First Philippine Properties, Inc. forming a new vehicle for plantations and forestry.
MANILA, Philippines--Almost five months after the launch last year, the Shell Companies in the Philippines is finally signaling the official start of the commercial operation of its compressed natural gas (CNG) stations today.
ZURICH—Growing use of crops such as wheat and corn to make biofuels is putting world food supplies in peril, the head of Nestlé, the world's biggest food and beverage company, warned Sunday.
I was in the United States last week to cover the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) held in Washington D.C.
THE PHILIPPINES is prepared to meet its 2014 biofuel requirement of about 537 million liters of bioethanol a year, Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said.
WASHINGTON, DC – The Philippine government signed here Tuesday $55 million worth of business deals with American corporate giants in the development of renewable energy sources to help develop the emerging bioethanol and coco-diesel industries in the country.
T'BOLI, SOUTH COTABATO — A group of investors has expressed interest to put up a 20,000-hectare sugarcane plantation in this town, already the host of two large agribusiness companies.
It is a bit frightening that we have progressed to the point where there is little meaningful discussion about some issues.
A PUBLICLY-LISTED sugar conglomerate has completed a multibillion peso-bank loan which will be used to improve its operations so that it can better compete against low-priced imported sugar entering the Philippines beginning 2010.
President Arroyo is urging farmers in Luzon to plant more coconut trees to help sustain the country's biofuels program.
Today is the second day of the year of the rat. Happy New Year, Mr. Speaker. Happy New Year also to 174 congressmen. Have you washed your hands of the blood of your former leader?
It is unfortunate that Sen. Miguel Zubiri chose to resort to innuendoes in the current debate on bio-fuels. The senator accused those who are critical of the current approach to government's biofuels program as being part of a well funded smear campaign of Big Oil.
The quest for solutions to problems brought about by global warming and its subsequent adverse effects like climate change, have raised additional concerns that might aggravate an already precarious condition.
WITH the Biofuels Act of 2006 giving local sugar growers a little glimmer of hope for their produce, but which now is being doubted, local sugar planters cited the need for an alternative market to make them thrive in the local sugar industry.
UNMOVED BY high-profile policy debates on biofuels, oil companies and transport groups said they will continue to support, or at least follow, the law that requires the fuel mix
INSTEAD of encouraging local and foreign investors to infuse much-needed capital to boost the country’s biofuels program, Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri told the BusinessMirror Thursday that some of the investors he has spoken with have expressed concern over the statements made regarding a review of the Biofuels Act of 2006.
Key segments of the agriculture industry have risen to the defense of bio-fuels, as the debates over food security are rekindled by the legislature.
THIS YEAR will be decisive for the local bioethanol industry as February 9 marks a one-year countdown to the implementation of a blending mandate set via the Biofuels Law.
MANILA, Philippines -- Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri Tuesday accused oil companies of financing a campaign against the Arroyo administration's program to develop biofuels, specifically those made from jatropha and ethanol.
ADMINISTRATION Sen. Miguel Zubiri is challenging fellow Sen. Miriam Santiago and other biofuel pessimists to a debate when Congress resumes session on January 28 even as Zubiri charged that three big oil firms are fueling a strong lobby against full implementation of the country's biofuels program.
MANILA, Philippines -- The author of the Biofuels Act in the House of Representatives, Juan Miguel Zubiri, now a senator, said biofuel development would not only help reduce the country's diesel and gasoline imports, but also benefit the country's farmers.
MANILA, Philippines -- A Nobel laureate has cautioned the government against rushing into biofuel development because there's little energy to be gained from it.
NEARLY A YEAR after the law mandating biofuels blends into regular petroleum products was enacted, investors have flocked to the new fuel sources, committing at least $2 billion in investments, according to official data.
MANILA, Philippines -- The author of the Biofuels Act of 2007 in the Senate Monday sought more governmental oversight powers over biofuel development, saying that biofuels could adversely affect the country's ability to produce its own food.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that she has signed into law the Biofuels Act (Republic Act 9367) that provides that all liquid fuels for motor vehicles sold in the country "shall contain locally produced bio-fuel components.
The National Biofuels Board (NBB) is looking at the possibility of putting up a one-stop-shop that would assist investors who would want to pour in capital in the country's biofuels industry.
GOV. SALIPADA K. PENDATUN, Maguindanao--Arcangel Pagculan, the newly elected village chair of Sepaka, has become a jatropha convert after poor rice harvests the past two years.
ANOTHER SPAIN-BASED energy company is studying plans to invest as much as $250 million to develop some 50,000 hectares of land planted to cassava as feedstock for biofuel facilities in the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture said in a statement yesterday.
Additional investments worth P6.2 billion are expected to be clinched by the Philippines for biofuel-related projects, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said.
PARTLY envisioned in the Biofuels Act of 2006, the mandated use of biofuels in the country has continued to attract local and foreign companies alike to pour in fresh capital to put up bioethanol- and biodiesel-producing plants that will help meet the country's demand for biofuels. Related stories on biofuels in Science page, C3.
Some $350 million worth of renewable energy projects are expected to be clinched by the Philippines, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, main author of the Biofuels Law and a main proponent of renewable energy, said.
BALI, Indonesia—Increase in the use of biofuels would have disastrous social and environmental impacts, according to a coalition of environment experts during the United Nations (UN) climate-change conference here.
MANILA, Philippines A MADRID-BASED biodiesel firm is planning to invest $200 million in the Philippines to develop at least 100,000 hectares of land into jatropha plantations, the Department of Agriculture said.
It is not only the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) that should be amended but also the Oil Deregulation Law. Also, there should be similar antitrust legislation in the cement and pharmaceutical industries.
PRESIDENT Arroyo will renew her call for the use of green energy sources when she attends the 13th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Leaders' Summit in Singapore next week.
A P1.5-billion Green Power Complex (GPC) is planned to be set up in Pangasinan where an integrated sweet sorghum and sweet potato biofuel-cogeneration plants will rise in about two years.
THE SUGAR sector will need to spend at least $500 million to build up sufficient capability to produce enough biofuels to meet commercial demand.
Remember stagflation? That was the no growth scenario during the 80s oil crisis when inflation was stoked by rising oil prices… a case of cost push inflation. Inflation moved up not because there was a dramatic increase in demand but because the rising oil prices (for even dropping demand) simply had to be passed on to the consumer and there were no ifs nor buts about it.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Leaders of the biofuels industry are challenging critics who argue that converting food to fuel is driving up food prices, saying higher energy costs and other factors are more important.
At least 15 companies are preparing to enter the biofuels industry with investments estimated to reach P34 billion.
AT least 15 companies have expressed willingness to spend as much as P34 billion in biofuels production here in the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
ENVIRONMENT activists on Tuesday warned the Arroyo administration against prioritizing the production of crops for fuel over food, saying such a policy may lead to an increase in hunger incidence in the Philippines.
BACOLOD CITY--Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri has urged businessmen to invest in bioethanol production to prepare for the drop in tariffs on imported sugar.
MANILA, Philippines -- The National Biofuels Board (NBB), which will oversee the government’s alternative fuels program, has been given an initial budget of P90 million for 2008, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said.
MANILA, 05 July 2007 -- Filipino motorists who want to learn more about biofuels can now do so by visiting the Biofuels Philippines website, the first Internet resource center for everything about biofuels in the country.
Strong government support and the presence of a law on biofuels have turned the Philippines into one of the most attractive investment sites for biofuels projects, a global consultancy firm has said.
The Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand will spearhead efforts to come up with common biofuels standards, which will allow these countries to export their biofuels with less hassle.
The Department of energy (DoE) has asked the oil companies to defer any cost impact relating to the initial 1.0 percent blend of coco methyl (CME) to diesel products due for implementation starting today.
Manila -- The Department of Energy (DOE) expects the smooth implementation of the Biofuels Act beginning Sunday, May 6, 2007.
A reference book on Philippine biofuels plants published by the Asia-Pacific Biofuels Corporation (ABC) will be off the press this November.
