Is Alcogas / Ethanol + Gasoline mixture safe for our cars?

San Carlos City to produce ethanol in 2007
THE SOUTHERN BEAT By Rolly Espina
The Philippine Star 04/19/2005

The announcement did not come from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo but the good news about the P1.5-billion ethanol plant that will be operational by the second half of 2007 came from Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

But he made the announcement during the President’s recent weekend visit to Negros Occidental.

This was a much-awaited solution to the sugar industry’s product diversification move. It is expected that the project will lessen the country’s almost total dependence on imported fossil fuel.

The project will be undertaken by Dronzeoak Philippines, headed by Jose Ma. Zabaleta, the executive director of the Philippine Sugar Millers Association and a sugar planter from the San Carlos mill district.

The project will be supported by the National Development Corp. and a foreign investor.

Actually, the local firm is named the San Carlos Bioenergy, which is now in the process of being incorporated. In the San Carlos milling district, most sugarcane farmers had reportedly agreed to convert their sugarcane plantations to produce ethanol which will be processed through conversion of pure sugarcane juices into alcohol.

San Carlos Milling Co. was closed several years back. Thus, the 400,000 metric tons of cane from the district’s 6,000 hectares have to be transported nearly 100 kilometers away to Victorias Milling Co., the Lopez Sugar Corp. mill in Sagay City and the Bais Sugar Central in Bais City, Negros Oriental.

According to Yap, Petron has reported that it is ready to mix ethanol with its gasoline. The plan is to mix either five to 10 percent of ethanol (often called here alcogas) with gasoline.

As planned, the distillery will process up to 1,500 tons of sugarcane juice to produce 100,000 liters of ethanol and generate nine megawatts of power.

Zabaleta said that the P1.5-billion plant will provide an additional 200 industrial jobs to the local community. It will be located at the San Carlos Eco-Zone. This was approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and will pave the way for the duty free processing of products for the domestic and export markets.

In addition, the plant will reportedly produce 50 tons of CO2 daily for the beverage industry, Zabaleta said.

The possibility of putting up other ethanol plants in Negros Occidental seem a bit problematic. The first hurdle is convincing sugar producers that ethanol is a more viable alternative to sugar production which is subject to the seasonal flux of millgate sugar prices.

The second problem is the standard mill-planter ratio of production which is placed at 70-30 instead of outright sale of farm produce as practiced in other countries.

In short, there are obstacles that must be hurdled. There is also the question as to which areas should be devoted primarily to ethanol and whether the present higher-yielding cane varieties are best-suited for ethanol production.