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The Philippines may be able to produce its first commercial scale sweet sorghum-based ethanol as the Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp. is in exploratory talks to establish a 1,000-hectare sweet sorghum plantation in Negros Occidental, a press release from the Bureau of Agricultural Research Philippines said.
The sweet sorghum production will require P45-P75 million investment at a P30,000-50,000 per hectare production cost.
The cane will be used to produce sweet sorghum syrup for ethanol production at the San Carlos Bioenergy Inc.'s plant in San Carlos City in Negros Occidental, the press release said.
At a yield of 2,500 liters per hectare, 1,000 hectares can produce as much as 2.5 million liters of ethanol per year.
The likelihood of PNOC’s supporting the plantation program anchors on the fact that sweet sorghum is very competitive as bioethanol feedstock as studied by UPLB and Mariano Marcos State University team, according to Prof. Rex Demafelis, University of the Philippines Los Banos Alternative Energy Research, Development, and Extension Convenor and Chairman of UPLB Energy Systems Committee.
The commercial production is expected to come after several years of agronomic research and inter-agency coordination funded by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research.
When realized, the plantation will generate jobs either in an available upland in San Carlos City or or in adjacent municipalities, the press release said.
“The challenge to farmers is to plant sweet sorghum as against sugarcane. This is a perfect complement crop to sugarcane because the identified uplands have not been planted at all with sugarcane, so now people will start earning from them,” Demafelis said.
At an estimated 50 per MT of stalk yield plus three MT of grain yield per hectare per cropping, this will give farmers an estimated additional P60,000- 80,000 net earnings per year.
There is a need to introduce an alternative feedstock to sugarcane for ethanol production due to the erratic changes in the price of sugar, and consequently sugarcane, the press release said.
Source: VDS-EE
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