P150-M biomass plant to be operational on January 2012 in Northern Aurora

DINALUNGAN, Aurora, December 2, 2011-The P150-million biomass gasification power plant on-going construction of a Filipino company in this town which is projected to provide 24-hour rural electrification to around 250 households will be operational on January 2012.

The Eco Market Solutions has investments in agro-industrial processing and in information technology is about to finish the power plant at an eight-hectare site in Barangay Dibaraybay and formerly expected to start this December 16 but due to the past typhoons that struck the province the owner of the power plant moved the schedule on January 2012.

Gao Pronove, EMS president said that the power plant, which will have a maximum power-generating capacity of up to two megawatts, will provide scalable and green power on a 24-hour basis using Indian technology in building the biomass plant which will utilize farmers’ waste materials such as rice hull, coconut husks, “palapa” (coco fronds) and branches as fuel.

He said that the country’s rice hull production is estimated at 45.2 million tons a year and is mostly generated in the major rice-producing regions such as Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, and Western Visayas. Coconut residues are abundant in Southern Tagalog, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula and in Davao.

  

Pronove said EMS is now buying up to P500,000 worth of coconut residual wastes like coconut husks and fronds for the project.

“We will gasify the agricultural waste and turn it into gas,” he explained, adding the plant will produce nitrogen, hydrogen, methane gas, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

“Farmers will also earn additional income because the company will buy their waste materials amounting to P1 per kilo. We need eight (8) tons of waste material per week to run the plant,” Pronove said, who is also the President of InnoPharma Philippines.

Pronove said EMS that after the power-generating equipment has been installed they will have full-blast operation in January, explaining that the plant is just a pilot project with an initial capacity of 250 kilowatts and when it becomes successful, EMS will increase its capacity to an additional 750 kilowatts for a total of 1,000 kilowatts in the whole of Dinalungan and expand its coverage areas by adding 500 kilowatts each in the nearby towns of Casiguran and Dilasag which get electricity supply of only one hour a day.

EMS will also seek the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission of a power service agreement between the firm and the Aurora Electric Cooperative (Aurelco) wherein excess power produced by the plant will be sold to Aurelco.

“EMS technology is 20 percent cleaner than power plants run by diesel engines and is relatively cheaper, more efficient and sustainable than the existing power supply in many non-grid areas in the country,” Pronove said, who is also the co-founder of Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. (Jason de Asis)