LOOKING at joining the ethanol bandwagon, the Cavite Biofuels Producers Inc. (CBPI) said it partnered with the Cavite Sugarcane Planters Multipurpose Cooperative (CSPMPC) in developing a 125,000-liter-per-day bioethanol distillery in the municipality of Magallanes, Cavite. 

In a statement, CBPI said the distillery is scheduled for commercial operations in 2010 and will be the nearest bioethanol production facility to Metro Manila.

On September 8, CBPI and CSPMPC will be launching the joint sugar-cane nursery as part of the sugar-cane expansion program that the group has undertaken to supplement the existing sugar-cane plantations in the Third District of Cavite.

CBPI is a special-purpose company that was incorporated in January 2008 to develop, construct, own and operate an integrated ethanol distillery and power cogeneration plant with a capacity of 125,000 liters of ethanol per day and a daily electrical output of approximately 5 megawatts for internal energy requirements. 

The bioethanol distillery will be located in barangay Caluangan in the municipality of Magallanes, Cavite, in the Southern Luzon region of the Philippines.

CBPI said the plant is fully integrated and designed to ensure optimum energy efficiency. It includes a cane mill, distillery, cogeneration plant, carbon-dioxide recovery plant, anaerobic digestion plant and fuel ethanol storage and loading facilities. 

Byproducts, according to CBPI, will include electricity for internal use, food-grade carbon dioxide which is captured for sale and fertilizer produced from the liquid effluent and solid waste, which is given back to the cane suppliers.

CBPI said the cane will be sourced from a maximum area of about 6,000 hectares primarily from the towns of Magallanes and Maragondon. Scheduled for commercial operations in November 2010, CBPI’s ethanol facility will be the nearest ethanol production facility to Metro Manila considering that the oil refineries in Batangas and Bataan and oil-storage facilities in Pandacan, Manila and to the demand centers of Metro Manila and South Luzon.

CBPI said the ethanol facility’s proximity to the processing sites and the car-using public addresses this issue while transport cost has been a prime concern of most commodity movements.

Antonio Lopa, CBPI president, said one of the benefits of the CBPI bioethanol project will be its contribution to the fuel security of the country.

“With its output of locally produced fuel ethanol, the facility will be able to displace more than 40 million liters of gasoline per year, which lessens the country’s dependence on imported fuel,” he added.

With the Philippines almost totally dependent on imported petroleum, Lopa said the recent upsurge of world oil prices had a huge impact on the local pump prices of gasoline and diesel.

CSPMPC chairman Filomeno Maligaya has also expressed enthusiasm over the project, saying it will inject new life to the people of Cavite by spurring capital investment, improving infrastructure, creating new employment opportunities and increasing the income of farmers.

“Cavite farmers have been plagued for years by high production costs, lack of farm-to-market roads, vulnerability to storms and flooding and a prohibitive distance to the nearest sugar mill, which is more than 70 kilometers away,” Maligaya said.

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