Philippines’ Lucio Tan Group announces additional investments in renewable energy

Absolut Distillers Inc., which is part of Philippine-based Lucio Tan Group, will build a sugar mill and cogeneration power plant to complement its bioethanol facility in Batangas province, Philippines.

Chief Operating Officer Gerardo Tee said that the company may invest at least PHP 500 million (USD 10.7 million) in the project.

The sugar mill’s crushing capacity is about 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of cane per day. The resulting cane juice will be used as a raw material in the bioethanol facility. The waste material from crushed cane will be used as feedstock in the cogeneration facility, which will have a capacity of 3 to 4 megawatts.

“If we get funding this year, we can develop it for one and a half years and be done around 2017,” Tee said.

Using sugarcane juice as feedstock in the bioethanol facility will ensure continuous production of bioethanol, despite declining supply of molasses from sugarcane farms in Luzon, said Nestor Mendones, Group CFO and senior vice president of parent Lucio Tan Group.

The bioethanol facility already has off-take agreements with independent oil firms Seaoil and Flying V. The bioethanol facility is expected to produce 100 litres per day or three million litres per month.

Tee said the bioethanol plant is the third part of the Lucio Tan Group’s “multi-million” investment in renewable energy.

The project is inside the distillery, along with the biogas producer and the 2-megawatt solar power plant which supplies 40% of the alcohol distillery’s power requirements.

The Philippine Biofuels Act of 2006 mandated a 10% ethanol blend in gasoline.

echo '