MANILA, Philippines โ€“ A South Korean firm investing $300 million to put up what may be the largest bioethanol facility in Asia capable of generating its own power supply.

According to the Department of Agriculture’s investment arm, the Philippine Agribusiness Development and Commercial Corp. (PADCC), the sugarcane-fed bioethanol plant to be built in Clark will have a capacity to produce 150 million liters a year.

โ€œIt is effectively the biggest [bioethanol plant] in the country, [and] possibly in Asia,โ€ PADCC president Mariz Agbon told reporters. โ€œIt will be comparable to the ones in Brazil.โ€

Agriculture officials refused to reveal the name of the Korean company, saying that the foreigners preferred to maintain a low profile at this stage of the facilityโ€™s development.

The plant in Clark is set to be commissioned in 2012. It will have a power generation component capable of supplying 40 megawatts to other consumers, including the Clark economic zone.

Local partner

A local partner, Central Luzon Bioenergy Corp., will manage the agricultural side of production. It will oversee a total of 30,000 hectares of sugarcane fields in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac.

The sugarcane will be used as feedstock for the bioethanol plant in Clark.

Earlier, the government required oil companies to produce gasoline products with a 5-percent ethanol blend. This means that the Philippines will require 219 million liters of ethanol this year, according to National Biofuels Board (NBB) chair Rafael Coscolluela.

Because local ethanol production remains low, the Philippines may have to import bulk of its ethanol requirements from Brazil this year.

The ethanol content in gasoline products will be raised to 10 percent in 2011. As a result, local ethanol requirements will rise to 461 million liters by 2011, and to 536 million liters in 2014, according to government estimates.

By raising the ethanol content in gasoline products, the government hopes to reduce the countryโ€™s dependence on imported oil.

PADCC helps local and foreign investors find land for agribusiness investments.

The NBB, meanwhile, mandates how much ethanol companies can import to ensure that local requirements for bioethanol are met.

Agbon said that, so far, existing local producers such as San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. produce only 30 million liters of bioethanol a year.