6 July 2005 – Philippine Ambassador to Moscow Ernesto V. Llamas reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that a Ukrainian energy company will set up revolutionary power plants around the Philippines using a source of abundant natural fuel of which the country is the leading producer in the world – coconuts.

Ambassador Llamas, who has concurrent jurisdiction over Ukraine, said that Sukhin Energy, Inc. (SEI) has finalized an agreement with the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) to install a 2.5-megawatt (mW) synthesized gas station in Masbate island using coconut husks.  The project, the first joint venture between the Philippines and Ukraine and valued at US$ 7 million, will serve as a pilot project with 75% Ukrainian financing that could be implemented throughout the whole country later on.

Ambassador Llamas further said that the project would solve two problems in a single stroke: provide sustainable environment-friendly electricity for Masbate’s 600,000 inhabitants; and utilize a waste product from a bountiful Philippine resource.  The low-capacity autonomous stations are especially useful for use in a country of 7,107 islands, he added.

On 26 June 2005, prominent Ukrainian scientist and SEI President Yevgeny Sukhin publicly unveiled his invention, RGV-2000M, using 20 tons of coconut husks shipped from the Philippines.  The demonstration was held for a Philippine congressional delegation led by House Speaker Jose C de Venecia, Jr. – on the first official visit to Ukraine by a Philippine House Speaker – at the Klavdievo Experimental Plant, around 35km. west of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

Instead of utilizing traditional fossil fuels, the RGV-2000M produces synthesized gas through the process of pyrolysis from agricultural, mining or household byproducts and vegetable waste such as sawdust, stone and brown coal, peat and lignin.  In turn, the produced fuel gas is used in the production of thermal and electric energy.  Coupled with supplementary equipment, the station could also double as an ice production plant.

Ambassador Llamas reported that at a press conference, Mr. Sukhin said that his equipment boasts of high efficiency at low cost and transportability.

Speaker de Venecia said that the new technology “will reduce our importation of crude oil, and makes use of a basic Philippine raw material.”

Speaker de Venecia also mentioned that the joint RP-Ukrainian project would be the third innovative use developed recently for Philippine coconuts.  He mentioned that there is currently a boom in sales of Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil in the USA, Asia and Europe.  In Russia, the health product is being sold in Nizhny Novgorod.  Also, the Chinese government intends to purchase coconut materials to help halt the encroachment of the Gobi Desert in western China.

Developed for seven years, the experimental station in Ukraine was built in eight months.  A new station, weighing 320 tons and designed especially for the Masbate pilot project, will be shipped in 28 containers at the end of July 2005 and reassembled in two months in the Philippines.  It is expected to generate 2.5 mW of electricity for Masbate by October 2005.

By May 2006, four RGV-2000M stations – including a backup in case of breakdowns – are expected to generate 10-12 mW of electricity, more than enough to meet Masbate’s minimum energy requirement of 7.5 mW or 9 mW at peak hours.

The delegation, which was invited by Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn – President of Ukraine’s unicameral parliament, the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) – included Representatives Rolex Sulpicio and Ferjenel Biron, Honorary Consul General of Ukraine in Manila Oscar de Venecia, and Vice-Consul Roderico Atienza, the officer in charge of Ukraine at the Philippine Embassy in Moscow, Russia.

Congressmen Sulpicio and Biron indicated interest in having similar projects installed in their respective congressional districts in Panay island.

Coconuts are found in tremendous abundance in the Philippines, the world’s second largest archipelago.  The country is the world’s biggest coconut producer, followed by Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Until now, coconut husks have had little use and usually go through natural decomposition or are disposed of.  The new technology would definitely help millions of Filipino coconut farmers, whose industry has not recovered from a downtrend in the copra marked two decades ago, Ambassador Llamas said.

Mr. Sukhin, who headed the Ukrainian Presidential Commission on Non-Traditional Energy Sources in 1994, is also proposing two other projects for the Philippines: the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and the manufacture of durable electric steel poles.  The CNG project involves the construction of a plant in Batangas, the deployment of mobile CNG units and the conversion of public transport for CNG use.  END
 
 
 
 
 

/jay