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Local biofuel pioneer Seaoil Phils. Inc. is
intensifying its bid to develop and commercialize ethanol-blended
gasoline, which the company said is the cheapest and most
environment-friendly transport fuel in the country.
Seaoil said the record-high
petroleum prices are not expected to significantly ease this year as
global oil demand heightens due to continued geopolitical
risk factors and increased usage in China and India, so the use of
alternative fuels is gaining popularity around the world, with
governments encouraging investments and the shift toward biofuels.
In the Philippines, Seaoil
revealed it not only initiated the use of ethanol-blended gasoline
but is also investing and continuing research on alternative fuel
technology to keep up with the global trend.
Alternative fuels such as
ethanol, biodiesel, and automotive LPG can totally replace gasoline
or diesel to power motor vehicles, industrial machines or
electricity plants, Seaoil said.
Ethanol or ethyl alcohol, derived
from sugarcane or corn, is a common form of biofuel now widely used
in Brazil and the US. Under the Biofuels Act, the Philippine
government is mandating the use of at least 5-percent blend of
ethanol in gasoline sold and distributed by each oil firm two years
after the law’s implementation last year. The ethanol blend will
be increased to a minimum 10 percent by volume within four years.
Seaoil said it has pioneered the
use of ethanol as a gasoline blend in the country when it
offered its first ethanol-blended gasoline or E10 in selected retail
stations in Metro Manila on August 2005—two years before the
biofuel law took effect.
Today, Seaoil’s network of
stations across the country offers a 10-percent blend of ethanol on
all its gasoline products.
“The company continues to
explore economical substitutes for the Filipino people as well as to
push for alternative fuels in support of advancing energy
independence. The company’s aggressiveness in developing
environment-friendly and alternative fuels will help it achieve its
goal of becoming number one in biofuels,” Seaoil President and CEO
Francis Glenn Yu said.
He said the company has invested
in Fourier Transform Infrared fuel analyzers, IROX 2000 for
gasoline/bio-ethanol, and the IROX Diesel for diesel/biodiesel to
ensure the highest standard of quality and compliance with the
Biofuels Act and Philippine National Standards for its fuel
products.
“Being the leader in biofuels,
Seaoil is the first company in the industry that has invested
in the instruments and the technology,” Yu said. He added that as
a result of Seaoil’s ethanol-blended gasoline, the company was
able to sell regular gasoline in all its retail outlets nationwide
at a P2-per-liter discount.
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