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Philippines: Bioethanol production from carabao maybe viable, but needs gov't support for further research
Thai News Service
Section: Regional News — The Filipino scientist who found a way to produce biofuel through carabao fluid asked the government to fund the additional research of the technology that could usher the country towards energy independence in the very near future.
Dr. Fiorello Abenes, a professor emeritus of animal and veterinary sciences at California Polytechnic University and 1975 Balik-Scientist awardee, said the carabao «has rumen fluid whose organisms can help transform rice stubble and straw and other biomass into bioethanol».
«The carabao is a paradigm in converting lignocellulose to ethanol and provides the model, just like a 'mother liquor' in the conversion process,» he said.
Bioethanol is a light alcohol produced by fermenting sugarcane, corn, cassava and nipa. It is one of the types of biofuel mandated for mixture with diesel and gasoline under the Biofuels Act.
The natural conversion of biomass in the buffalo's pouch could constitute the first fermentation step that breaks down the difficult cell walls of lignocellulosic biomass to release the sugars contained in it.
It could thus become the 'mother liquor' of ethanol, and make the first and most difficult step in the production of cellulosic ethanol more affordable.
His research won third price at the Department of Science and Technology's competition for the outstanding research work in industry and energy sectors.
He said preliminary calculations based on theoretical models have indicated that as much as 117 liters of alcohol can be distilled from 1,000 kg of biomass materials.
Given the natural abundance of biomass, the use of 85 percent ethanol for flexible fuel vehicles (FFV) may be possible, he said.
There is now a technology for the conversion of vehicles using engine fuel to FFV at an affordable cost, he said.
Abenes said the research would also help generate jobs in the countryside by getting rural residents involved in the digestion process (in bioreactor containers) of the biomass material with the use of the rumen fluid that will be supplied to them.
The alcohol from the bacterial beer collected from the participating rural residents can be further refined through a solar distiller, he said.
The distiller is now being designed by engineers from CLSU, he added.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo earlier said that her administration has set its goal of moving the country towards energy independence by embarking on programs geared towards the development of renewable and indigenous sources of energy.
Abenes expressed this would boost production of viable and stable energy mix towards the achievement of the government's energy independence goal.
The Philippines produces only 10 percent of its fuel demand that in 2006, the country's total oil import stood at around 100.8 million barrels with a total cost of US$ 6.8 billion. — PNA
Date: 31.03.2008
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