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By Conrad M. Cariño, Senior Desk Editor
First of two parts
Plant oils or extracts for fuel are old hat to
Filipinos. But having a law for the general use of biofuels for
transport—the Biofuels Act of 2006—is very new.
The steep rise of crude oil prices worldwide and
concerns over greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles made the use of
biofuels here an urgent matter.
In his book “Coconut, The Philippines’ Money
Tree,” Dr. Renato Labadan said among the factors that should make
the government adopt biofuels is the dwindling world oil supplies
made faster by India’s and China’s insatiable hunger for crude.
“Petroleum analysts worldwide are one in
saying that the world crude oil supply is near its halfway mark.
Unless new oil fields are discovered and developed, the crude oil
supply will be critical within the next 40 years apart from becoming
prohibitively expensive,” Labadan, one of the most prominent
scientific minds in the country, wrote in his book that discusses
the wonders of the coconut tree, including its being a source for
biofuels.
The international environmental group,
Greenpeace, has been warning of the escalation and speed of global
warming caused by the unabated release of greenhouse gas emissions
from machinery and engines running on fossil fuels.
An article (accessible in www.sciencemag.org)
written by Jorn Scharlemann and William Laurance quoted researchers
who said, “Most [21 out of 26] biofuels reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions by more than 30 percent relative to gasoline.”
And citing a study from the Asian Institute of
Petroleum Studies Inc., the Department of Agriculture said the
reduction in fuel consumption as a result of the enactment of the
Biofuels Act would save the country the P17.3 billion a year spent
on imported oil stock.
Nothing new
When it comes to research on biofuels, the
Philippines can actually boast of being ahead of its Asian
neighbors.
The use of biofuels in the Philippines started
even before the Japanese occupation, according to the article “The
Philippine experience in substitutes for gasoline and diesel,”
written by Filipino scientists and inventor Felix Maramba and
published in the book The Filipinas Journal (published in 1981 by
the Filipinas Foundation Inc.).
“At this time [Second World War], gasoline was
the standard motor oil fuel, but in 1922 some sugar centrals started
using an alcohol-gasoline blend for locomotives and trucks hauling
cranes,” Maramba said in his article. “The La Carlota Sugarcane
Experiment Station started using straight hydrous alcohol as motor
fuel in 1928. The sugarcane farms followed suit; so did some bus
companies.”
In the same article, Maramba said studies on the
use of alcohol as fuel substitute was backed by practice.
“The group published no fewer than 10
scientific papers on the subject, the first in 1931. Results of
their experiments showed that alcohol has a higher octane rating or
anti-knock property than gasoline,” Maramba wrote.
The group referred to was led by Dr. Anastacio
Teodoro of the College of Agriculture of the University of the
Philippines. His doctoral thesis at Cornell University was about the
use of alcohol as fuel.
During the Second World War, Maramba said the
lack of fuel forced Filipinos to use straight hydrous alcohol for
gasoline engines, and crude coconut oil for diesel engines.
And in the 1970s and 1980s, there were trials,
studies and advocacies undertaken on the use of biofuels, primarily
from ethanol and coconut oil.
Compared to the Filipinos who pioneered the use
of biofuels before and during the war, today’s biofuel advocates
seem conservative, especially if one takes into account the
provisions of the Biofuels Act.
The law provides that two years after its
effectivity, gasoline should have a minimum of 5-percent bioethanol,
and after four years at least a 10-percent blend. For biodiesel, a
minimum of 1-percent blend to diesel engine fuels is required within
three months from its effectivity, and at least 2 percent after two
years of its effectivity.
Nonetheless, the Arroyo administration has made
the adoption of alternative sources of power, like biofuels, as one
of its major programs to reduce the country’s dependence on
imported oil stock.
The Energy department’s website states that
“the Alternative Fuels Program is one of the five key components
of the Arroyo Administration’s Energy Independence Agenda, which
outlines the roadmap that will lead to the country’s attainment of
60 percent energy self-sufficiency by 2010.”
The program has four major subprograms: the
biodiesel program, the bioethanol program, the natural gas vehicle
program for public transport and a program which encourages the use
of liquefied petroleum gas for vehicles. The Energy department also
advocates the adoption of hybrid, fuel cell, hydrogen and electric
vehicles.
“The goal is to develop indigenous and
renewable energy fuels for long term energy security, which will be
a pillar for our country’s sustainable growth,” the Energy
department said.
To be continued
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