By Alena Mae S. Flores

San Carlos BioEnergy Inc. will start commercial operations of its P2.5-billion integrated ethanol distillery and co-generation power plant by the middle of January.

“They will be able to meet the 5 percent mandate for ethanol starting February,” Energy Department director Mario Marasigan said.

He said San Carlos BioEnergy started testing and commissioning of the plant in December and expected commercial operations to begin next month.

The plant, located at the San Carlos Agro-Industrial Economic Zone in Negros Occidental, was designed to meet local and international environmental and technical standards.

The plant has a fuel ethanol distillery capable of producing 125,000 liters of ethanol per day, or 30 million liters annually, and a co-generation plant with a power capacity of 8 megawatts.

The plant needs approximately 400,000 tons of cane annually—all coming from the 9,000-hectare San Carlos sugar district.

Bio-ethanol is alcohol produced from sugarcane and other crops such as corn, cassava and sweet sorghum. It is part of the government’s alternative fuel program that aims to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

San Carlos BioEnergy officials confirmed that the company would be able to serve customers this year, including oil refiner Petron Corp.

Bronzeoak Philippines, a unit of Bronzeoak Ltd. of the UK, is the primary developer of San Carlos BioEnergy, together with Zabaleta & Co., a private family-owned corporation established in 1997 to engage in sugar farming and agribusiness.

Other local San Carlos BioEnergy stakeholders are National Development Co., a state-owned company, and San Julio Realty Inc., equally owned by Zabaleta and Co. and Rep. Julio Ledesma. San Julio is a subsidiary of the joint sugarcane-based business of Zabaleta and Ledesma.

The company’s investors also include Valmayor Ventures Inc., the holding company of the Valmayor family, who are engaged primarily in large-scale sugarcane plantations, aquaculture and other investments in the San Carlos area, and other private and institutional investors.

Bronzeoak and Zabaleta & Co. also plan to put up two more ethanol plants in Southern Bukidnon and Pampanga.

The ethanol plants will have a capacity of around 120,000 liters per day and be designed similar to the ethanol facility in Negros Occidental.

Cavite Biofuels Producers Inc. and the Cavite Sugarcane Planters Multi-Purpose Cooperative will also develop a 125,000 liter-per-day bio-ethanol distillery in Magallanes, Cavite with an estimated investment of P3.3 billion.