P6-B biomass plant to rise in Pangasinan

BANI, Pangasinan, Philippines  – A P6-billion biomass energy plant in this town is in the pipeline for the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program after the Spanish government submitted the feasibility study it funded two weeks ago to the mayor finding the project viable.

Bani Mayor Marcelo Navarro Jr. said during the Pangasinan Tri-Media forum that they would like to offer the construction of the project to private investors. The Spanish company will be coming this month to visit the site and an investors’ forum would be held sometime in September.

Navarro is optimistic that by the middle of next year, this project would be realized.

He said a year ago he signed a memorandum of agreement with the ambassador of Spain for a grant of 190,000 euros to fund the feasibility study which was undertaken by Global Tech, a Spanish engineering firm that specializes in the construction of biomass energy plants.

This project will use rice husks and sorghum.

He said this biomass facility will generate electricity and at the same time produce ethanol out of sweet sorghum.

The project cost is 100 million euros or P6 billion and the response has been very positive with Phil Bio, Asia Bio, a transmission company, a triple A contractor and other groups manifesting interest in this project, he said.

The project will also produce 8.5 megawatts of power and thousands of liters of ethanol, to be complemented by a rice mill and palay drying facility.

The mayor said after rice, farmers could plant sorghum which takes only three months to mature, and needs only about one-tenth of the water requirement of corn.