More multi-billion peso investments are expected in San Carlos City with the scheduled construction of another 12 to 15 megawatt biomass power plant, a carbon dioxide recovery plant that will produce welding gas, and an industrial port, Jose Maria Zabaleta, San Carlos Bionergy Inc. chairman, said yesterday.

On Friday the P3 billion SCBI sugarcane-based ethanol and co-generation plant, the first in Southeast Asia, was inaugurated in the San Carlos Ecozone in Barangays Palampas and Punao, San Carlos City.

The plant, aside from producing nearly 40 billion liters of ethanol annually, generates 8 megawtts of renewable energy, 3.5 megawatts of which it sells to the Victorias-Manapla-Cadiz Rural Electric Cooperative, Zabaleta said.

Next year SBCI’s carbon dioxide recovery plant what will produce welding gas will also be operational, Zabaleta said. It is estimated to cost about P200 million.

The plant’s welding gas has already been contracted for purchase by shipyards in Toledo City, Cebu, just across the strait from San Carlos City, he added.

Also set to be constructed in the San Carlos Ecozone is a 12 to 15 megawatt biomass power plant that will be fueled by bagasse from sugarcane, cuttings from trimmed trees and all agricultural waste such as rice hulls, corn cobs, coconut husks, Zabaleta said.

This will be another effort to produce renewable energy and further wean the country away from fossil fuel, he added.

The biomass plant to be built by a consortium of local and foreign investors, including SCBI, is expected to be operational in three years and estimated to cost about P1.5 billion, Zabaleta also said.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority has approved the use of 400 hectares in San Carlos for the Ecozone but currently being developed is 120 hectares, he said.

So far there are five companies, all in the energy business, who have expressed interest in setting up firms in the San Carlos Ecozone, Zabaleta added, but withheld their names for now.

And on top of the existing Philippine Ports Authority Port in San Carlos, Zabaleta said the Northeastern Port and Storage Inc. located at the old port of the defunct San Carlos Milling Co. has been set up to become an industrial port, he said.

The industrial port, where liquid cargo like ethanol, fuel, lubricants will be shipped out from, will be financed by a consortium composed of SCBI, San Julio Realty Corp. and other domestic and foreign investors, Zabaleta added.

It is the port where SBCI loads its ethanol for shipment to Petron.

So far P150 million has been invested in the port that could cost up to P300 million, Zabaleta said.

San Carlos Mayor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the city government is also building an airport for cargo aircraft, but only about 10 percent of the work has been completed so far.

It is being built on a 15-hectare property but the Ledesma family is willing to donate about 25 hectares, Lacson said.

It is locally funded and Internal Revenue Allotment-dependent so it is going very slow, we are hoping to get some help from the national government, Lacson said.*CPG

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