URC invests PHP1 billion to build Negros ethanol plant

Universal Robina Corp. (URC), which runs the Universal Robina Sugar Milling Co. (Ursumco) and the Southern Negros Dev. Corp. (Sonedco), is building an ethanol plant at a cost of PHP1 billion (US$24.5 million). The facility, which is expected to be operational by 2014, will have a capacity of 100,000 liters per year. The ethanol plant will also have the distinct advantage of proximity to feedstock supply from the two sugar mills URC owns in Negros Occidental. URC says this is the auspicious time to put up an ethanol plant, as the country’s annual capacity of 133 million liters is not sufficient to fill the 480-million-
liter yearly demand.
 
The ethanol plant is part of URC’s program to invest in renewable energy, as it has also invested PHP2 billion (US$49 million) in a biomass-fired co-generation plant with a 40-megawatt capacity within the Sonedco area. The plant is expected to be completed in 2015.
 
In the Philippines, a 10% blending of bioethanol with gasoline is currently mandated. The country imports 350 million liters at an estimated cost of up to PHP11.55 billion (US$283.5 million).
 
A Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study has projected that a 15% ethanol mix with gasoline would enable the country to displace 645.79 million liters of imported gasoline by 2015; a 20% mix by 2020, will mean 1.04 billion liters.
 
URC said it is in a position to invest in more renewable energy plants in other areas outside of Negros, as it also operates sugar mills in Iloilo and Cagayan Valley in Luzon.(January 26, 2013)