03/02/2009 (The Manila Times), Bangkok - PTT Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand said it plans to become Southeast Asia’s hub for ethanol production as it plans to export its products with the expected higher output this year.

Thawansak Krapong, PTT vice president for aviation and marine marketing, said the company is eyeing to carve a niche in biofuels production in the region and “try to make PTT the ethanol hub,” he said.

PTT is Thailand’s largest energy company with investments in oil refining, petrochemicals and in both the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry. The government controls 70 percent of the company while the rest are listed in the Thailand bourse.

The PTT official said that the company’s thrust to spearhead ethanol, locally dubbed as “gasohol,” is an offshoot of the Thai royalty and government’s initiative to develop the alternative fuel in order to come up with a sustainable energy source for the country.

PTT’s retail stations in Thailand currently offer 10 percent ethanol-blended gasoline (E10) and E20. Aside from these products, the company is currently developing E85.

Krapong said that besides from selling ethanol-blended gasoline to the local market, PTT may start exporting the alternative fuel this year on the back of a projected growth in Thailand’s sugarcane production.

“Supply is not enough but this year there will be more production, there will be surplus. We consider we might export,” he said.

Thailand has 11 ethanol production facilities and produces ethanol from sugarcane and some from cassava at a rate of four million liters a day.

In contrast, the Philippines’ local supply has been hard to come by since only a couple of private investors have been drawn to invest in ethanol facilities.

Besides ethanol, PTT, in partnership with Toyota Motors and the academe, is also currently developing other biofuel sources. It poured an equivalent of about P1.4 billion to this initiative for the next three to five years.

During a visit to PTT’s research and development facility, company officials said that the oil firm is currently testing 10-percent biodiesel blended diesel (B10), B20 and B50.

This is on top of the B2 and B5 products it is offering motorists at the pumps, which are mostly derived from palm oil.

Moreover, the company is also developing the plant Jatropha curcas as a possible biodiesel source in a bid to diversify the country’s alternative fuels feedstock.

Officials said that initial tests on the plant affirmed its potential as a replacement to diesel but further studies have to be conducted to identify which variety can produce the same amount of oil as palm. Palm produces 600 kilograms of oil per 6.25 hectares of land.

“We will start the development of the right seed that can produce the oil that match the quantity of palm oil in the same area with the same input within three years,” an official said.

Because of this, PTT does not yet encourage local communities to plant Jatropha as “we have to make sure that it has high productivity,” the official added.

In contrast, a unit of the Philippine government’s counterpart state oil company, Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp., is pursuing the establishment of Jatropha nurseries and plantation locally. It has yet to develop the government’s energy crop of choice into a commercially viable biodiesel source.