Japanese Invests in $120-M Ethanol Plant in Isabela
by Melody M. Aguiba (Manila Bulletin Publishing) The biggest in the Philippines
tochu Corp. of Japan is investing $120 million in an ethanol plant in San Mariano, Isabela, which is expected to become the Philippines’ biggest and the only integrated biofuel plant by 2012.
The project would be undertaken by Green Future Innovations Inc. (GFII), a joint venture of Itochu, another Japanese firm JGC Corp., the Philippine Bioethanol and Energy Investments Corp., and Taiwanese holding firm GCO.
Under the plan, the joint venture will plant sugarcane over an 11,000 hectares in San Mariano. It will employ an estimated 15,000 people in farm and 500 in the plant.
…On top of the ethanol production, GFII will produce 19 megawatt (MW) of electricity from bagasse, a sugarcane residual, of which 13 MW will be sold to the national grid. READ MORE
