Ethanol fuel in the Philippines

Last updated

The Philippines Biofuels Act 2006 requires oil companies to use biofuels in all "liquid fuels for motors and engines sold in the Philippines." All gasoline sold in the country must contain at least 5 percent ethanol by February 2009, and by 2011, the mandated blend can go up to 10 percent. [1] The new law is expected to bring a number of benefits to the country:

Philippines Republic in Southeast Asia

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east, and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.

Ethanol is a chemical compound, a simple alcohol with the chemical formula C
2H
6O. Its formula can be also written as CH
3−CH
2−OH or C
2H
5−OH, and is often abbreviated as EtOH. Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a slight characteristic odor. It is a psychoactive substance and is the principal type of alcohol found in alcoholic drinks.

Contents

"Commercial production of ethanol from sugarcane, cassava or sorghum will help the island nation diversify its fuel portfolio and help to ensure its energy security. It could also generate employment, particularly in rural regions, as investors put up biofuel crop plantations and processing plants. Also, the shift to these plant-based fuels for transportation will help reduce pollution." [1]

Sugarcane group of cultivated plants

Sugarcane, or sugar cane, are several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea, and used for sugar production. It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six metres tall. All sugar cane species can interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops.

Cassava Species of plant

Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava, manioc, yuca, macaxeira, mandioca, aipim and Brazilian arrowroot, is a woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Though it is often called yuca in Spanish and in the United States, it is not related to yucca, a shrub in the family Asparagaceae. Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca; its fried, granular form is named garri.

<i>Sorghum</i> genus of plants

Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Seventeen of the 25 species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One species is grown for grain, while many others are used as fodder plants, either cultivated in warm climates worldwide or naturalized, in pasture lands. Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae.

Four feedstocks—sugarcane, corn, cassava and sweet sorghum—were initially identified for ethanol production, but sugarcane is expected to be the predominant source of ethanol. The Philippines is a sugar-producing country, and sugarcane is grown mainly in the islands of Negros, Luzon, Panay and Mindanao. Despite growing demand for sugar, there are still an estimated 90,750 hectares (224,000 acres) of sugarcane available that can be used for ethanol production, and high-yielding varieties of sugarcane are available. [1]

Introduction

In 2005, SEAOIL Philippines Inc. pioneered the use of ethanol as gasoline blend in the country, and the first to offer E10 Fuel in the market in their gasoline products. This was done even before the enactment of the Biofuels Act of 2006.

In July 2008, Pilipinas Shell and Petron Corporation introduced 95 Octane E10 Gasoline alongside their Unleaded (93 Octane) and Premium Unleaded (95 Octane) variants.

Royal Dutch Shell Anglo-Dutch oil company

Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known as Shell, is a British-Dutch oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. It is one of the six oil and gas "supermajors" and the fifth-largest company in the world measured by 2018 revenues. Shell was first in the 2013 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies; in that year its revenues were equivalent to 84% of the Dutch national $556 billion GDP.

Petron Corporation

Petron Corporation is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, supplying more than a third of the country’s oil requirements. It operates a refinery in Limay, Bataan, with a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day (29,000 m3/d). From the refinery, Petron moves their products mainly by sea to 32 depots and terminals in the country. They operate a lube oil blending plant at their Pandacan Terminal, where it manufactures lubes and greases.

See also

Common ethanol fuel mixtures

Several common ethanol fuel mixtures are in use around the world. The use of pure hydrous or anhydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines (ICEs) is only possible if the engines are designed or modified for that purpose, and used only in automobiles, light-duty trucks and motorcycles. Anhydrous ethanol can be blended with gasoline (petrol) for use in gasoline engines, but with high ethanol content only after minor engine modifications.

Ethanol fuel by country

The world's top ethanol fuel producers in 2011 were the United States with 13.9 billion U.S. liquid gallons (bg) and Brazil with 5.6 bg, accounting together for 87.1% of world production of 22.36 billion US gallons. Strong incentives, coupled with other industry development initiatives, are giving rise to fledgling ethanol industries in countries such as Germany, Spain, France, Sweden, China, Thailand, Canada, Colombia, India, Australia, and some Central American countries.

Ethanol fuel in Brazil

Brazil is the world's second largest producer of ethanol fuel. Brazil and the United States led the industrial production of ethanol fuel in 2014, together accounting for 83.4 percent of the world's production. In 2014 Brazil produced 23.4 billion liters, representing 25.2 percent of the world's total ethanol used as fuel.

Related Research Articles

An octane rating, or octane number, is a standard measure of the performance of an engine or aviation fuel. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating (igniting). In broad terms, fuels with a higher octane rating are used in high performance gasoline engines that require higher compression ratios. In contrast, fuels with lower octane numbers are ideal for diesel engines, because diesel engines do not compress the fuel, but rather compress only air and then inject fuel into the air which was heated by compression. Gasoline engines rely on ignition of air and fuel compressed together as a mixture, which is ignited at the end of the compression stroke using spark plugs. Therefore, high compressibility of the fuel matters mainly for gasoline engines. Use of gasoline with lower octane numbers may lead to the problem of engine knocking.

Biofuel type of biological fuel from which energy is derived

A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes, such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than a fuel produced by geological processes such as those involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, from prehistoric biological matter. If the source biomatter can regrow quickly, the resulting fuel is said to be a form of renewable energy.

Bagasse pulpy residue left after the extraction of juice from sugar cane

Bagasse is the dry pulpy fibrous residue that remains after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. It is used as a biofuel for the production of heat, energy, and electricity, and in the manufacture of pulp and building materials.

Flexible-fuel vehicle vehicle with an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel

A flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) or dual-fuel vehicle is an alternative fuel vehicle with an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol or methanol fuel, and both fuels are stored in the same common tank. Modern flex-fuel engines are capable of burning any proportion of the resulting blend in the combustion chamber as fuel injection and spark timing are adjusted automatically according to the actual blend detected by a fuel composition sensor. Flex-fuel vehicles are distinguished from bi-fuel vehicles, where two fuels are stored in separate tanks and the engine runs on one fuel at a time, for example, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or hydrogen.

Alcohol fuel

Alcohols have been used as a fuel. The first four aliphatic alcohols are of interest as fuels because they can be synthesized chemically or biologically, and they have characteristics which allow them to be used in internal combustion engines. The general chemical formula for alcohol fuel is CnH2n+1OH.

Ethanol fuel in the United States

The United States became the world's largest producer of ethanol fuel in 2005. The U.S. produced 13.9 billion U.S. liquid gallons of ethanol fuel in 2011, an increase from 13.2 billion U.S. liquid gallons in 2010, and up from 1.63 billion gallons in 2000. Brazil and U.S. production accounted for 87.1% of global production in 2011. In the U.S, ethanol fuel is mainly used as an oxygenate in gasoline in the form of low-level blends up to 10 percent, and to an increasing extent, as E85 fuel for flex-fuel vehicles.

The United States produces mainly biodiesel and ethanol fuel, which uses corn as the main feedstock. In 2005 the US overtook Brazil as the world's largest ethanol producer. In 2006 the US produced 4.855 billion US gallons of ethanol. The United States, together with Brazil accounted for 70 percent of all ethanol production, with total world production of 13.5 billion US gallons. When accounting just for fuel ethanol production in 2007, the U.S. and Brazil are responsible for 88% of the 13.1 billion US gallons total world production. Biodiesel is commercially available in most oilseed-producing states. As of 2005, it was somewhat more expensive than fossil diesel, though it is still commonly produced in relatively small quantities. Due to increasing pollution control and climate change requirements and tax relief, the U.S. market is expected to grow to 1 to 2 billion US gallons by 2010.

Biofuel in Australia

Biofuel is fuel that is produced from organic matter (biomass), including plant materials and animal waste. It is considered a renewable source of energy that can assist in reducing carbon emissions. The two main types of biofuel currently being produced in Australia are biodiesel and bioethanol, used as replacements for diesel and petrol (gasoline) respectively. As of 2017 Australia is a relatively small producer of biofuels, accounting for 0.2% of world bioethanol production and 0.1% of world biodiesel production.

China has set the goal of attaining one percent of its renewable energy generation through bioenergy in 2020.

Biogasoline is gasoline produced from biomass such as algae. Like traditionally produced gasoline, it contains between 6 (hexane) and 12 (dodecane) carbon atoms per molecule and can be used in internal-combustion engines. Biogasoline is chemically different from biobutanol and bioethanol, as these are alcohols, not hydrocarbons.

Sustainable biofuel is biofuel produced in a sustainable manner.

There are various social, economic, environmental and technical issues with biofuel production and use, which have been discussed in the popular media and scientific journals. These include: the effect of moderating oil prices, the "food vs fuel" debate, poverty reduction potential, carbon emissions levels, sustainable biofuel production, deforestation and soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, effect on water resources, the possible modifications necessary to run the engine on biofuel, as well as energy balance and efficiency. The International Resource Panel, which provides independent scientific assessments and expert advice on a variety of resource-related themes, assessed the issues relating to biofuel use in its first report Towards sustainable production and use of resources: Assessing Biofuels. In it, it outlined the wider and interrelated factors that need to be considered when deciding on the relative merits of pursuing one biofuel over another. It concluded that not all biofuels perform equally in terms of their effect on climate, energy security and ecosystems, and suggested that environmental and social effects need to be assessed throughout the entire life-cycle.

The use of biofuels varies by region and with increasing oil prices there is a renewed interest in it as an energy source.

There are a number of biofuels used in New Zealand.

History of ethanol fuel in Brazil

The history of ethanol fuel in Brazil dates from the 1970s and relates to Brazil's sugarcane-based ethanol fuel program, which allowed the country to become the world's second largest producer of ethanol, and the world's largest exporter. Several important political and technological developments led Brazil to become the world leader in the sustainable use of bioethanol, and a policy model for other developing countries in the tropical zone of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. Government policies and technological advances also allowed the country to achieve a landmark in ethanol consumption, when ethanol retail sales surpassed 50% market share of the gasoline-powered vehicle fleet in early 2008. This level of ethanol fuel consumption had only been reached in Brazil once before, at the peak of the Pró-Álcool Program near the end of the 1980s.

Seaoil Philippines

Seaoil Philippines, Inc., stylized as SEAOIL Philippines, is a fuel company that started in 1978. The Filipino-owned company offers fuel products ranging from automobile gasoline to industry-specific lubricants and services such as storage and shipping. Its two offices are currently located at Raffles Corporate Center 7th floor and Taipan Place 19th floor and 22nd floor at Ortigas Center, Pasig, Philippines.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Prospects for the Philippines' Fuel Ethanol Industry
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.