PCARRD offers alternative energy sources for food industry

Pinched by rapid oil-price turbulence, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other energy-related inputs to process and prepare food, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) recommends to the food industry to use technologies that are anchored on renewable energy and save production cost.

The three viable options being offered by the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) council include adoption of bamboo charcoal briquette, jatropha enterprise integrated to research and development project for biodiesel production and a biogas digester system.

“Our theme, ‘Providing science solutions for a vibrant agriculture and sustainable environment’ is linked to the agency’s [DOST] aim of empowering people with proven technologies,” Richard Juanillo, deputy executive director for institution development and resource management of PCARRD, said in the Technology to People media conference on Saturday.

Through alternatives on food energy, the industry is expected not to reduce its production volume or pass on to consumers its additional yield cost.

The bamboo-charcoal briquette, for one, is viewed as best substitute for LPG or for a pile of hardwood or charcoal because it possesses longer- burning capacity and low-obtaining cost.

Its selling price is P10 a kilogram pack of 40 pieces. It can produce heat for two-and-a-half hours without leaving black residues at the bottom of cooking pans and on ovens.

“This briquette is created by Mariano Marcos State University to also process bamboos that failed to pass furniture standards like dead poles and branches from the clumps,” explained Dr. Stanley Malab, consortium director of Ilocos Agriculture Resources Research and Development Consortium. “Its binder is effluent from the processing of chichacorn [crispy fried corn kernels] that has starch mixture.”

Briquettes, according to Malab, may also be comprised of rice hull (ipa) and binded with cassava or corn starch.

“Any product with biomass material can create a briquette. Right now we’re developing a briquette with garlic scent and looking at volcanic ash and sugar cane if we can also process it next year,” he said.

He noted that such project is significant because it eliminates waste, give the residents of Batac employment and additional income, and avoid the cutting of new trees.

Jatropha enterprise, on the other hand, is leveraged as advanced preparation to running-out fossil-oil supply by 2040 based on technical studies and increasing negative effects of global warming.

“One gallon of fossil fuel burns 10 kg of carbon dioxide [CO2],” said Dr. Roberto Guarte, vice president for administration and finance and project director for Jatropha Project in Eastern Visayas-Visayas State University in Baybay, Leyte.

“Planting jatropha is one way to attain energy self-sufficiency, which is also the government’s goal for the country.”

Priced at P7 per seedling, the plant can grow in sloping, flat and mountainous areas. Contrary to the belief, it offers benefit only by the time it is harvested.

“It can be intercropped with coconut, eggplants, corn and sweet potato; has a lifespan of 35 to 50 years; and can be harvested two times a year,” said Guarte.

The plant has long been used as traditional medicine, pesticide, soap and fuel for lighting and cooking. Its strong root system can hold water for long periods to survive the dry season and is deemed useful in reforestation, soil rehabilitation and soil-erosion projects.

Based on the study produced by Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp., the average annual income of farmers per hectare per year from jatropha is estimated at around P50,000.

For totally free gas consumption, the biogas digester system that uses animal and human dung is anoption.

Even small-scale and farm-sized animal growers can build the biogas and control the foul odor of their pens or poultry.

“The digester is built of concrete materials. Since it is enclosed, it cannot leak or affect the water table,” said Felimon Santander of Magsasaka Siyentista from Southern Mindanao Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium at Barrio Obrero in Davao City.

“It is safe more than what is constructed in India and China because it is designed with hydraulic chamber that controls pressure. When the system detects pressure is too much, it will be bubbled out.”

A household-sized digester is 2 cubic meters and needs 10 heads of pig or 20 chickens to work.

The sludge produced in the dome-shaped digester contains 1.09-percent nitrogen, 10.13-percent of phosphoric acid, 1.44-percent potassium and 9.28-percent moisture content.

Its lab analysis states, “Biogasification, or the microbial conversion of organic matter in anaerobic condition, offers a systematic approach to manure treatment that stabilizes the wastewater and also produces a significant amount of energy in the form of biogas.”

“To allow faster anaerobic decomposition and produce great amount of gas, waste matter must be stirred by a bamboo pole with a quart of plastic at least twice a week,” reminded Santander.

More than 100 digesters have been constructed in Visayas and Mindanao that range from 2 cubic meters to 50 cubic meters.

Santander is into partnership with Southern Mindanao Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium in constructing the digester for interested clients or organizations.

He further emphasized, “Other waste may also be used as digester component, such as rotten vegetables, rice and wheat straw and corn stalks.”

source: businessmirror