news/updates
Use of 1% coco-biodiesel blend cuts carbon emissions by 24.2% in Q3
By Paul Anthony A. Isla
Business Mirror
December 5, 2007
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).
"There has been a drastic 24.2-percent reduction in amount of total suspended particulates [TSP] and particulate matter [PM] in the air in the third quarter of the year," said Raffy Diaz Jr., managing director of the Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc. (AIPSI).
The AIPSI official said the institute has sought to establish a factual but informal assessment of the environmental impact of the biodiesel mandate using the monthly ambient air-quality monitoring data of the DENR-Environment Management Bureau (EMB) derived from its 13 monitoring stations in the National Capital Region.
Diaz said the air-quality data measures TSP and PM10 (particulate matter with size of 10 micron) level in ambient air, and that the DENR-EMB takes the lowest and highest reading in a given month to get an average reading.
AIPSI used as baseline the air-quality data in the first quarter when there was no 1-percent biodiesel mandated.
When the Biofuels Act of 2006 took effect on May 6, AIPSI already recorded a TSP of 17.4 percent for the second quarter.
Diaz said that since hot air goes up and cool air comes down, air pollutants are closer to nose level during cool wet season (third quarter), adding that data should continue to improve toward the drier months.
He said this data supports positive anecdotal proof on the effect of the biodiesel mandate as Metro Manila residents can now see the coastline of Manila Bay in the morning without a haze, while those in Antipolo can now see the city without a blanket of smog.
"The ambient air quality of the DENR, although informally obtained, is factual enough that could be a good indication that the biofuels mandate had, indeed, done well in cleaning the air we breathe," Diaz said.
