Cavite-based integrated ethanol plant to be online in 2010

The Cavite Biofuels Producers, Inc. (CBPI), in partnership with the Cavite Sugarcane Planters Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CSPMPC) shall be developing a 125,000 liter-per-day bioethanol distillery in the Municipality of Magallanes , Cavite . Scheduled for commercial operations on 2010, it will be the nearest bioethanol production facility to Metro Manila.

On September 8, CBPI and CSPMPC will be launching a joint sugarcane nursery as part of the sugarcane expansion program that the group has undertaken to supplement the existing sugarcane plantations in the 3rd district of Cavite. Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, the lead author of the Philippine Biofuels Law, has confirmed to deliver the Keynote Address of the event.

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 MW for internal energy requirements. The bioethanol distillery will be located in Barangay Caluangan, in the municipality of Magallanes , Cavite , in the Sourthern Luzon region of the Philippines .

The plant is fully integrated and designed to ensure optimum energy efficiency. It includes a cane mill, distillery, cogeneration plant, carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery plant, anaerobic digestion (AD) plant and fuel ethanol storage and loading facilities. By-products include electricity for internal use; food grade CO2 which is captured for sale and fertilizer produced from the liquid effluent and solid waste, which is given back to the cane suppliers.

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 on November 2010, CBPI's ethanol facility will be the nearest ethanol production facility to Metro Manila. This is worth noting because the ethanol facility is situated close to the oil refineries in Batangas and Pandacan, Manila and to the demands centers of Metro Manila and South Luzon, which comprise nearly 60% of the total ethanol demand of the Philippines . While transport cost has been a prime concern of most commodity movements, the ethanol facility's proximity to the processing sites and the car-using public addresses this issue.

According to a statement released by Mr. Antonio Lopa, CBPI President, one of the benefits of the CBPI bioethanol project will be its contribution to 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. Because the Philippines is almost totally dependent on imported petroleum, 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 that the project 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