Jatropha as alternative fuel a bust

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 05, 2011 PHILIPPINES
Jatropha as alternative fuel a bust
BY JOHN LOURENZE POQUIZ

The government is set to abandon its program of promoting jatropha as an alternative fuel source, an official said.

Energy Secretary Jose Rena Almendras said the Philippine National Oil Co. Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC), the biofuels arm of state-owned PNOC, will nonetheless pursue development of other sources of alternative fuel.

"We will no longer push through with the jatropha. We will look for other forms of alternative fuels. We want those that will not compete with food," he said.

One of the new fuel sources the government is planning to explore is algae, Almendras said.

After the jatropha program was launched in 2009, PNOC-AFC entered in agreements with various groups and local government units for the planting of jatropha plants, whose seeds contain oil similar to diesel.

Three farmers groups signed up to put up jatropha plantations in Iligan City and the provinces of Aklan and Biliran with a total area of 1,650 hectares.

PNOC-AFC also signed a tripartite agreement with the local government of Rodriguez, Rizal, for the establishment of an aggregate area of 2,000-hectare jatropha plantation in Montalban. Under the agreement, the company funded at least 500 hectares with a total project cost amounting to P9.125 million.

PNOC-AFC had allotted about P1 billion for the development of jatropha as feedstock since 2009. Almendras said about P400 million is left from the original fund.

The official said that the remaining amount could be used to develop other forms of alternative fuels.

The Biofuels Act of 2006 mandates mixing of 1 percent of biodiesel in diesel and 5 percent of ethanol in gasoline for the first four years of the law’s implementation. Right now, oil firms are required to blend at least 2 percent biodiesel to their diesel products.

Coconut oil is the feedstock being used for biodiesel.

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