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Shirley C. Agrupis
Professor, Biological Sciences and Director, External Affairs and Partnerhsip
Mariano Marcos State University, Batac City 2906, Philippines
Email: shirleyagrupis@yahoo.com
Tel : +639276948330; Telefax: +63777922507
Abstract
Ethanol is advocated worldwide as fuel additive to reduce greenhouse emissions, to
improve gasoline combustibility, and to solve the growing oil-driven energy crisis. Ethanolblended fuels provide a number of environmental benefits, including reducing emissions of
conventional and greenhouse gas pollutants in vehicle exhaust. Mixing ethanol to gasoline
increases hydrocarbon combustibility thereby increasing octane rating of the fuel and,
consequently, enabled the phase-out of toxic lead and MTBE additives.
The Philippine Biofuels Act of 2006 mandates the use of ethanol-gasoline blends of 10%.
Under the Act, the Philippine National Standards (PNS) specified that the ethanol used in
blending should be 99.6% anhydrous. The technical requirements to produce anhydrous ethanol
effectively cuts out the participation of village-scale industries in the production of fuel-grade
bioethanol the very sector that the legislation purportedly wants to benefit.
The biofuel program of Mariano Marcos State University is anchored on the goal to
develop technologies that will enable farmers full participation in the biofuel revolution. Since
2008, it has been conducting integrated studies for the production and evaluation of hydrous
ethanol, the MMSU95hBE, as gasoline oxygenate and fuel. Starting from laboratory scale
studies, it has progressed to village scale experiments including 1) fermentation studies for sugar
cane juice, sweet sorghum jaggery and molasses; 2) reflux distillation experiments, and 3)
formulation, characterization, and testing of hydrous gasohol blends using MMSU95-hBE with
commercial gasoline. The successful results led to bulk production of hydrous ethanol and
optimization studies to make the production processes more cost effective and village-level
adaptable. New biofuel formulations were also developed, characterized, and tested. Presently,
rigorous testing on the use of 20% hydrous ethanol in gasoline blends is being conducted using
spark ignition engines, including fuel injected and carbureted cars, motorcycle, and stationary
engines. Results of these studies demonstrate the feasibility of using hydrous ethanol instead of
anhydrous both as oxygenate and as significant component of gasohol blends up to a
concentration of 30% hydrous ethanol with significant reduction of the major greenhouse gases
during combustion.