URC breaks ground for $35-M ethanol plant

MANILA, Philippines - Universal Robina Corp. (URC) recently broke ground for its $35-million ethanol distillery plant, which will produce ethanol fuel in support of the government’s efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on imported ethanol.

The plant, located in the company’s sugar central facility in Manjuyod town in Negros Oriental, will start operations in March 2014. It will produce some 100,000 liters per day or 30 million liters of ethanol fuel each year, according to Renato Cabati, general manager of Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corp. (URSUMCO).

The distillery plant will run mostly on blackstrap molasses, a by-product of sugar.

Bioethanol is used to fuel cars in 12 countries, Cabati said, most notably Brazil where one third of their cars use pure bioethanol as fuel while the remaining two-thirds use a mixture of gasoline and ethanol.

In the Philippines, the Department of Energy embarked on a bioethanol program under House Bill 4629 since 2007, which mandates blending gasoline with ethanol.

Based on their own studies, Cabati said the mandatory use of fuel ethanol blend will reduce the Philippines’ consumption of imported petroleum by up to 536 million liters a year, roughly valued at $404 million.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, who was at the ground-breaking ceremony, said the ethanol venture will support the domestic sugar industry as he hailed tycoon John Gokongwei for his dynamic leadership and pioneering spirit. “We should have more Gokongweis in the country today!”

Gokongwei, the chairman emeritus of JG Summit Holdings Inc, in a statement said he was proud of what the company’s businesses in Negros have achieved. “This (ceremony) is a truly promising start to this venture,” he said.

JG Summit is the mother company of URC, which owns three sugar mills in Negros Island. Its two other sugar mills are the Passi Sugar Central in Iloilo and Cagayan Robina Sugar Milling Co. in Cagayan Valley. The ethanol plant in Manjuyod is its first.

Cabati assured the public that the plant is adopting the latest technology in distillery operations and is installing the first ever Spent Wash incineration boiler in Southeast Asia which assures of an effective wastewater treatment facility.