SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑ0Z – As the first facility for bioethanol production from nipa palm is now in operation, the executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Phil- Rice) is pushing for its replication in other parts of the country.
“We hope to have this facility in more places in the Philippines and make nipa palm bioethanol a widely used fuel for farmers and fisherfolk,” Dr. Eufemio Rasco Jr. said. His comment was made after the inauguration of the first nipa bioethanol production facility in Barangay Cabaggan, Pamplona, Cagayan recently.
Rice farming and coastal communities will benefit largely from the production of large quantities of this fuel to fill up local supply demand, he said. “Fossil resources have been dwindling since the 1970s. This project with the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) will increase farmers’ competitiveness as nipa is a renewable energy that can fuel farm machinery and pump boats,” Rasco, a pioneer in nipa research, said.
He said the nipa palm is good source of bioethanol or water-free alcohol produced from the fermentation of sugar or converted starch because it does not compete as food unlike other sources such as corn, cassava, sorghum, and sugarcane.
Nipa palms are found in mangrove swamps and tidal estuaries. Their trunks or stems are under the mud and only the leaves and flower stalk grow upwards that can extend up to nine meters. The nipa palm leaves are used by local folk as roof material for thatched houses or structures and many types of basketry.
The flower, before it blooms, is tapped to produce the sap that is used as “tuba” or when fermented into a “tapayan” as pure vinegar. A town in Bulacan is popular in producing vinegar from nipa palm. Rasco said the nipa palm can produce as much as 26,000 liters of alcohol from a hectare per year and is four times more productive than sugarcane which is today`s main source of alcohol.
The latter can only generate 6,700 liters of alcohol per hectare per year. The facility’s power in Cagayan, tested through retrofitted water pump, produced 95 to 96 percent bioethanol during the launching ceremonial run. Engr. Nathaniel Mateo, project collaborator from the Mariano Marcos State University, said that 100 liters of nipa sap can produce seven to nine liters of bioethanol within 4.5 hours.
“We felt and observed in an international level the connection between energy and rice supply in 2007-2008 when increasing oil price escalated the price of rice to its peak. That event heightened the importance of developing a new energy system that is renewable, decentralized, and diversified,” Rasco said.
As the locals produce nipa lambanog or wine, project implementers are also improving their distilling facility to increase alcohol yield and efficiency. With the improved facility, nipa wine with 60 percent alcohol content and 28 percent yield conversion rate was produced.
Previously, nipa wine is produced with 40 percent alcohol at 22-24 percent yield conversion rate. The bioethanol facility is co-implemented by the local government unit of Cagayan and MMSU`s Dr. Shirley Agrupis, lead of the nipa bioethanol project, and Dr. Fiorello Abenes, project consultant and US senior Fulbright fellow.
Meanwhile, Crisanta G. Leaño , barangay chair of Cabaggan and also the leader of the Nipa Wine Making Cooperative (NWMC) in Pamplona, said that until recently, she and the other wine makers in her place were using the traditional fermentation methods that they inherited from past generations.
