news/updates
Biofuel movement in RP gains momentum
By Rudy A. Fernandez
Philippine Star
April 9, 2008
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.
The occasion that will draw about 100 policy makers, representatives of the academe and industry, researchers, and farmers to Batac City is the “First National Sweet Sorghum RD&E Review and Planning Conference” on March 12-14.
Focus of the scientific forum is a crop hitherto a “virtual unknown” in Philippine agriculture – sweet sorghum.
This crop has been thrust into the limelight following research and development (R&D) breakthroughs achieved by the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in recent years.
And such success has been shared with the Philippines .
It will be recalled that in February 2006, Indian president APJ Kalam, then visiting the Philippines , symbolically handed over to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo foundation seeds of improved sweet sorghum and peanut bred by INCRISAT.
Present during the ceremony were then Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban and former Agriculture acting secretary William D. Dar, now on his second five-year term as ICRISAT director general.
With President Arroyo's all-out support, a sweet sorghum national program began to take shape.
That sweet sorghum can now be dubbed as “plant of life” can be buttressed by its many uses, as cited by current Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap at “Technology Investment Forum” held on Jan. 19, 2007 . These are:
• Sweet sorghum's stalk contains sugar-rich juice suited for production of ethanol (a clean-burning high octane alcohol produced from crops). Further, the biomass after the extraction of juice is rich in micro nutrients and minerals that can be used as forage for animals.
• Its grains can be made into pop sorghum kernels (similar to popcorn) or ground into flour for the making of cookies and other snack items. Its juice can be processed into syrup, vinegar, wine, and jaggery (a kind of molasses).
• Its leaves are good feed for cattle and goats and its roots as fuelwood.
“Sweet sorghum is going to be a major player in the country's drive toward energy independence because of its many uses,” Yap said.
Studies done over the past two years have also unraveled many potentials of sweet sorghum for biofuel production.
Shortly after the “sweet sorghum-peanut diplomacy” at Malacañang in 2006, the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) headed by Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar tapped the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences, Inc. (ISAAS) led by U.P. Los Baños vice chancellor Dr. Roberto Rañola Jr. to study sweet sorghum's use as a feed stock for biofuel.
The study noted the following:
• It is drought-resistance and can endure storms and flooding. This enables farmers to plant the crop even if they have low access to irrigation or abrupt changes in climate and extreme weather disturbances.
• Yield of bioethanol (a blend of ethanol and gasoline) from sweet sorghum is comparable to that of sugarcane and better than cassava, as attested by Dr. Heraldo Layaoen, vice president of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac City and a member of the study team.
• Sweet sorghum's planting season is only three to four months (sugarcane's is 300-330 days), allowing for two cycles in a year and can serve as secondary crop for rice. Tests at MMSU have shown that sweet sorghum can produce 43 to 65 tons of stalks and 3.28 to 4.4 tons of grains per hectare.
• Feedstock cost for the distillery from sweet sorghum only ranges from P12.55 to P14.07 per liter of bioethanol, which is lower than the feedstock costs of sugarcane, cassava, corn, and molasses per liter of bioethanol.
• Sweet sorghum is a cheaper and more reliable source of feedstock and bioethanol fuel. “Blending ethanol with gasoline improves mileage as well as reduces toxic emissions. Ethanol blended with gasoline can be sold at retail at a lower price compared to unleaded gasoline,” the study stressed.
• Biofuels have a huge captive market in the Philippines , a factor that will attract investors to enter the business of bioethanol processing. As mandated by the Biofuels Law (Republic Act 9637 signed by President Arroyo on Jan. 12, 2007), at least 20 bioethanol plants are needed to meet the requirements of an E10 blend (10 percent ethanol and 90 percent unleaded gasoline) by 2010.
The study concluded: “The country will benefit from additional jobs created, foreign exchange savings, and a cleaner environment with the use of ethanol as fuel.”
As a member of the Philippine Biofuel Board (PBB) as stipulated by RA 9637, DA is mandated to develop, implement, and monitor the government's biofuel production and utilization technology programs.
Actually, as early as 2005, DA-BAR has supported R&D activities and initial production of sweet sorghum in the Ilocos Region through MMSU under the leadership of its woman president, Dr. Miriam Pascua.
The project on commercial production of sweet sorghum was then subsequently implemented in several areas in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley , Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon , and some provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao .
The study's results showed that of the eight sorghum varieties introduced by ICRISAT through DA, five are adaptable to Philippine conditions (NTJ02, SPV-422, ICSW-700, ICSV-93034, and ICSV-93046) reported BAR's Miko Jazmine Mojica.
In Bicol, through a joint undertaking of DA-BAR, MMSU, and Bicol Integrated Agricultural Research Center (BIARC), the region-wide commercialization of sweet sorghum includes development of village-level technologies such as pops from its kernels and macaroons and production of molasses and organic fertilizer.
Also now involved in the sweet sorghum R&D program are UP Los Baños and Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).
“With the headways achieved in sweet sorghum R&D, it is time to review the research results so that these can be properly aligned with the government's national thrust for food security and bioethanol production,” the organizers of the March 12-14 sweet sorghum RD&E conference in Batac City stressed.
Sponsored by DA-BAR, ICRISAT, MMSU, PCARRD, and Commission on Higher Education, the scientific form will synthesize current RD&E (research, development, extension) activities on sweet sorghum in the country for better understanding of its needs and prospects as biofuel, food, feed, and forage.
Among the issues also to be tackled is a plan to establish a sweet sorghum R&D center in the country.
It's full steam ahead for the country's sweet sorghum-based bioethanol industry, indeed.
