Biofuel producer looking at 2 sites for supply

One of only two operating bioethanol producers in the country is pursuing plans to increase ethanol output in a couple of years to offset the country’s imports, government and company executives said yesterday. The bioethanol producer has a processing plant in Negros Occidental capable of producing 125,000 liters of ethanol per day or 30 million liters per year. BronzeOak Phils., operator of San Carlos Bioenergy, is a partnership between Britain’s BronzeOak Ltd. and Zabaleta & Co., is a family-owned corporation involved in sugar farming, provincial real estate development and property holdings and investment. “The cane area that we are looking at is roughly 4,000-5,000 hectares but they are not all dedicated to sugarcane,” she added. Moreover, the bioethanol producer has already secured clearance to convert 18 hectares of land in South Bukidnon into an agro-industrial area for its biofuel plant. “We are looking at a 25-kilometer radius from the plant site extending to North Cotabato [as a sugarcane plantation for the feedstock],” Ms. The Philippines, which produces only 39 million liters of its 230- million liter annual bioethanol requirement for the 5% blend, is importing the balance from Thailand and Brazil. (June 17, 2009)