Director Mario Marasigan of the Department of Energy said he welcomes the proposal of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to set up an ethanol corridor in Negros Island.

"Negros is an ideal place for ethanol production," Marasigan, who heads the Energy Utilization Management Bureau, said Friday at the sidelights of the Philippine Energy Plan Update Public Consultation. He said an ethanol corridor includes lands serving as plantation areas for fuel production with open access to road or rail networks.

These big areas are planted to ethanol feedstocks but not limited to sugarcane as corn and sweet sorghum can also be grown as sources of ethanol, Marasigan said.

He said that aside from Negros, the DOE is also looking at other places that can be established as an ethanol corridor.

A study of the Ethanol Alliance indicated that Negros has the potential to host seven to nine biofuel production facilities and each can produce an average of 100,000 liters to 150,000 liters of ethanol a day.

Investors in Negros include San Carlos Bioenergy Inc., with a daily production capacity of 100,000 liters, at a P945-million investment; Negros Green Resources Inc., 120,000 liters, P980 million investment; Canlaon Alcogreen Inc., 60,000 liters, P750 million; JG Summit Holdings, 100,000 liters, P742 million; and Tamlang Valley Ethanol, 200,000 liters, P1.3 billion.

SCBI is currently constructing its facility which is expected to start commercial operations next year.*NLG

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