Farming communities in Ilocos Norte and other provinces which are producing sweet sorghum feedstock will soon benefit from the bioethanol production facilities launched on Sept. 28 at the MMSU Crops Research Laboratory Building in Batac.

The launching was spearheaded by a team of experts from MMSU and the United States Agency for International Development – Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for Development (USAID-STRIDE). The team was composed of Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis, in-charge of the bio-ethanol production project of MMSU; Dr. David Hall, Chief of Party of USAID-STRIDE; and Mr. Jeremy Gustafson, director of the Environmental Office of USAID.

Dr. Agrupis said the facilities will be used to process raw extracts from sweet sorghum, nipa, and coconut into hydrous bioethanol that could help supply local demand for gasoline mixture.

In the Philippines, sweet sorghum is considered an important source of alternative fuel because it produces high amount of juice that can be processed into hydrous bioethanol. Producing as much as 26,000  liters of alcohol in a hectare, sweet sorghum is 3-4 times more productive than sugarcane – today‘s main source of alcohol, which can only generate  6,700 liters.

In Ilocos Norte, there are about 30 hectares planted with sweet sorghum, located in five composite areas in Batac, Vintar, Pinili, Dingras and Paoay. Batac has the largest area–about 15 hectares– followed by Vintar, Pinili, Dingras and Paoay which have 6, 5, 3, and 1 hectare, respectively.

Tested through a retrofitted water pump, the facilities at MMSU produce 95-96 percent bio-ethanol. During the launching‘s ceremonial run, Engr. Nathaniel R. Mateo, MMSU project collaborator, said that 100 liters of sweet sorghum juice can produce 7-9 liters of bio-ethanol within 4.5 hours.

Established through a CARWIN grant from USAID-STRIDE, the facilities are composed of a furnace, cooling tower, reflux kettle and condenser which serve as distiller and fermentation equipment. The juice extracts from sweet sorghum, nipa, and the water from coconut are processed into 95 percent hydrous bioethanol. Developed by MMSU, this technology has been proven effective to improve the quality of wine and ethanol.

Dr. Hall said the project is a novel approach which may lead the country to become self-sufficient in its supply of bioethanol in the near future. The 200-liter capacity bio-ethanol facilities constructed by MMSU’s mechanical engineers cost about P100,000.

MMSU has been producing hydrous bio-ethanol from sweet sorghum jiggery since 2008 with the help of Dr. Fiorello B. Abenes, one of the Philippines’ top DOST Balik-Scientists who was deployed at MMSU. He is a professor emeritus of animal and veterinary sciences at the California Polytechnic University, Pomona (CalPoly Pomona).

Together with a team of experts from MMSU, Dr. Abenes developed a bioethanol mixture or formulation dubbed as MMSU hBE-20 or hydrous bioethanol (95 percent ETOH) from fermentations of sweet sorghum and sugar cane juices. The new biofuel mixture promises to be more sustainable in the future compared to other feedstocks being used to produce bioethanol and biodiesel.

The hydrous ethanol product was used to formulate a gasohol mixture (a petrol substitute consisting of 90 percent petrol and 10 percent grain alcohol from crops) consisting of 20 percent ethanol, 79.41 percent anhydrous (ethyl alcohol that has a purity of at least 99 percent) E-10, and 0.59 percent water. The resulting mixture is the MMSU hBE-20 formulation. This is more economically- and environmentally-sustainable than anhydrous mixes due to lesser resource utilization. The potential of this technology could save the country P6-B a year from ethanol importation. (By Reynaldo E. Andres)