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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?
The
impression we get is that the Department of Energy (DOE)
has launched a number of vigorous courses of action for
this purpose, one of which is intended to identify and
develop indigenous alternative fuels. The search for
alternatives has taken the DOE on the trail leading to
what it probably considers to be the “most promising”
prospect—and that is the commercial development of
jatropha as a viable source of oil for refinement into a
form of biodiesel.
Jatropha
(scientific name jatropha curcas) refers to a
sturdy, free-ranging shrub that Mindanao farmers often
grow around vegetable patches to serve as fences, hence
the term tubang bakod or tuba-tuba. These
small trees (which grow no taller than three meters) are
effective as fences because even goats—known to be
indiscriminate grazers—won’t eat their leaves, which are
bitter.
How this
nut-producing plant caught the attention of our energy
officials is not clear. But it was some years back when
then-representative Juan Miguel Zubiri (Bukidnon) was
excitedly recommending the commercial use of its oil as
a feedstock for biodiesel. Zubiri must have been relying
on laboratory findings that one liter of oil could be
extracted from three kilos of ripe jatropha nuts. The
oil can then be processed or refined into biodiesel
fuel.
That was
four or five years ago, if I’m not mistaken. Today, the
commercial propagation of this plant by the private
sector is being encouraged by the DOE through a
full-blown program that the Philippine National Oil Co.
(PNOC) is pushing as lead agency.
The PNOC
has a subsidiary called the PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp.
(AFC) which, as early as last year, launched a
nationwide information campaign that trumpets the
virtues and commercial potentials of this “amazing”
energy tree.
(Incidentally, the raw oil from ripe jatropha nuts has
also served farm folk well as lamp fuel in areas where
electricity is not available.)
Only
yesterday, the PNOC announced: “We believe that Mindanao
is the best area for the cultivation of jatropha. . . .
We foresee that
Mindanao will not only be the food basket of the country but
will also be the biofuel basket not only of the country
but also of
Asia as
a whole.”
The
jatropha production program, now in full gear, calls for
the establishment of seed centers in strategic
locations. The PNOC-AFC has also established 787
hectares of jatropha plantations in Cagayan de Oro and
Nueva Ecija.
Renato
Velasco, chairman of the PNOC-AFC, said in his
announcement that, “In 2007. . . the company was able to
entice investors to pour investment in proposed jatropha
plantations and biofuel refineries in the country.”
Apparently quite proud of PNOC-AFC’s remarkable
progress, Velasco added that “no other single local
entity can match the efforts of the company in this
regard.”
I
personally know of at least one sugar-central owner who
wants to join the program in a big way. He has done all
the preliminary studies and is now quite gung-ho and
thinking of sinking in big bucks into a leased
25,000-hectare plantation somewhere in Misamis Oriental.
I don’t
want to rain on anybody’s parade, but I’m afraid I have
bad news for both the proponents and those who have been
lured into the jatropha program. My intention here, it
must be stressed, is not to ridicule but to at least
help put things in perspective. I am only passing on the
opinions of the experts who have spotted its basic
flaws.
This is,
in other words, a kind of reality check, which either
might help ensure the program’s success, or serve as a
timely warning to avert a disastrous failure.
According to those who seem to know what jatropha is all
about, the PNOC-AFC, before proceeding with the program,
might want to look into the following considerations:
Jatropha
nuts come in bunches, much like grapes or the local
lanzones. For some reason, however, the jatropha fruits
in the same bunch don’t ripen at the same time, unlike
mangoes, grapes or any other fruit. Jatropha nuts are of
little use for whatever purpose unless fully ripe. To a
hard-nosed businessman, this is something else.
Imagine
a 25,000-hectare plantation where jatropha trees are
planted 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters apart. You would have
millions of jatropha trees, and harvesting only the ripe
fruits would be a tedious, time-consuming process that
you could never hope to mechanize. Any investor who gets
into the jatropha-plantation business will be in for one
helluva payroll and labor nightmare.
Point
No. 2—and this is the program’s fatal flaw: Did the
proponents of the jatropha program know that based on
India’s experience, the bio-diesel oil that jatropha
yields is useful only for two-cylinder engines such as
water pumps and other light-duty machines?
India,
according to the experts I’ve asked (Why weren’t they
consulted by the DOE for a clearer picture of what it
was plunging into?), was also very enthusiastic about
jatropha’s potentials. But this was before it discovered
too late the setbacks cited above.
The
Indian government was ahead of the Philippines in
jatropha-oil refining by several years. It had, in fact,
set an ambitious target of developing 250,000 hectares
for jatropha production. When they began to see what
were fundamentally wrong with the undertaking, it was
rather late in the day. India’s jatropha farms are now
down to less than 2,500 hectares.
It might
be worth the DOE’s while to check the veracity of these
observations. And, perhaps, as far as the production of
biodiesel is concerned, coconut oil as feedstock remains
one of our best bets.
Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com |
