Using bioethanol could save RP $160 M annually

Making it mandatory for vehicle owners to use a five-percent blend of bioethanol in gasoline will save the country $160 million annually, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said yesterday.

Santiago sponsored yesterday the Biofuel Act of 2006, which seeks to require some 5.2 million registered vehicle owners to use biofuel before the year ends.

While she admitted that biofuels are not a "magic solution... if we adopt the Biofuel Act of 2006, it can reduce our dependence on fossil oil."

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Senators Pia Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Richard Gordon and Edgardo Angara co-sponsored the bill.

The bill makes it mandatory for vehicle owners to use two kinds of biofuel — bioethanol or E10 from sugarcane as an additive to gasoline, and biodiesel or B1 made from coconuts as an additive to diesel.

Santiago said the bill orders the immediate compulsory use of these biofuels because the two fuel blends require no engine modification for either diesel or gasoline engines.

"Biofuels are simply blended with regular fuel, in the same way that additives are now being added to existing fuel," she said.

Bioethanol will be blended at five percent per volume into all gasoline fuels within two years from the effectivity of the Biofuel Act. Within four years after the act is passed into law, bioethanol will be blended at 10 percent per volume ratio.

On the other hand, biodiesel will be blended at one-percent volume into all diesel fuels immediately upon effectivity of the implementing rules and regulations of the Biofuel Act. The IRR will be issued by the Department of Energy, through the Biofuel Board.

Within two years from the effectivity of the act, the Biofuel Board will mandate a two-percent blend of biodiesel by volume.

Santiago noted that the 10-percent bioethanol-gasoline blend by the fourth year of the effectivity of the act will save the government $354 million.