The country’s first locally-produced fuel grade ethanol from the P2.5-billion ethanol refinery plant of San Carlos BioEnergy Inc. (SCBI) is expected to push through by mid-January in time for the January 2009 mandate of a 5% ethanol-blend in gasoline as provided by the Biofuels Law.
The integrated bioethanol distillery and power co-generation plant located in the San Carlos Agro-Industrial Economic Zone is the first in the Philippines and the Southeast Asian region. The plant has the capacity to produce 125,000 liters per day or 30M liters of ethanol annually and approximately 8MW of power.
The estimated 400,000 tons of cane required annually will come from the 9,000-hectare San Carlos sugar district. San Carlos City is the ideal location for the bioethanol plant since there is no sugar mill that currently operates there.
The San Carlos BioEnergy Inc. will not be the only company to put a bioethanol plant in Negros Occidental. Roxol Bioenergy Corporation will also put up a bioethanol plant in La Carlota City with a capacity of 100,000 liters per day. The Roxol bioethanol plant is expected to operate in 2010.
With these developments, there is no doubt that Negros Occidental is the Bioethanol capital of the Philippines.