The price of gas is getting out of hand everywhere. Ok, maybe not Venezuela, where its cheaper than our bottled water at ¢15 a gallon, but almost everywhere else, it's expensive. In the Philippines its so costly ($4.50 gallon in a country where, according to the Philippine National Statistics Office, the average household income is about $4,000 USD a year) that the Philippine National Police (PNP) has started testing neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) with the goal of putting them into regular action.

The customized vehicle can accommodate 4 adults and comes with a police light bar and "Polis" markings. There are no gears to shift, so operation is simple. With a top speed of 30 km/h (slow) they won't be involved in any high-speed chases but they're still adequate for routine patrols and providing police visibility. The force is also considering implementing bicycles.

[Source: Inquirer.net]

Energtek, which we remember from their ANG (Adsorbed Natural Gas) projects, has announced that they can successfully convert a two-stroke engine to use natural gas. The converted vehicle, a Yamaha RS100T motorcycle with a locally-produced sidecar, was converted to burn natural gas by utilizing Energtek's ANG technology. The company claims that this is the first recorded success of converting a two-stroke engine for a large-scale commercial project.

Two-stroke engines are usually more polluting than four-strokes but are usually cheaper to purchase and are quite durable. Countries such as the Philippines are actually attempting to ban two-stroke engines because of pollution issues, something that natural gas conversion can ease - but natural gas-burning two-strokes still produce carbon dioxide. Full press release after the jump.

Using a body of carbon fiber, Kevlar and epoxy swathed over a honeycomb core, the Sinag solar car, a first for the Philippines, is set to enter the 20th World Solar Challenge in Australia in October. The three-wheeled vehicle converts energy from the sun into electricity using 400 solar cells, silicon-based, which are capable of sending 2000 watts to a pack of lithium polymer batteries and in turn to the electric motor driving the rear wheel. Like other solar racers, the car seats one person and relies more on endurance than outright speed. We wish all of the cars a good race in Australia, hopefully the experience and knowledge gained will help to increase the efficiency of more normal cars like those that we all drive today.

Related:

• Solar car ready to promote alternative transportation in Philippines

[Source: Manila Times]

The price of palm oil, which has gained favour over the last few years as a cheap biodiesel feedstock, is soaring. Another relatively new use of palm oil is as a trans-fat substitute for use in processed food. But the oil palm, grown mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia, is not well liked - it has been blamed for rainforest destruction, the death of orang-utans, air pollution and exploitation of workers.

Europe in particular is fueling the growth in biodiesel production which in turn is encouraging the growth of more oil palm plantations. Meanwhile, Malaysian exports of palm oil to the U.S. increased by 65 percent last year as consumers turned away from trans-fats.

A controversial Chinese-funded plan to strip 1.8 million hectares / 4.5 million-acres of forest for a massive new oil palm plantation in Indonesia is causing alarm. But while land clearing in Indonesia is rampant, the locals are unapologetic claiming that Europe cleared its own forests for commercial gain.

Environmentalists meanwhile are concerned about the impact such practises are having. In their article, Physorg quotes Meena Raman from Friends of the Earth Malaysia as saying "It's a huge push to have a monoculture crop replace biodiverse rainforest and indigenous people. Palm oil is just a quick fix for biofuel."

Analysis: While a legitimate and sustainable palm oil industry exists in Malaysia and Indonesia, massive destruction of forests to export biodiesel to Europe is really just Europe exporting its environmental problems to South East Asia. The Philippines is so concerned about similar problems occurring in their country that they have embraced jatropha curcas as a plant which can be used as a biodiesel feedstock and grown in non-forest areas.

Related:

• Chinese biodiesel industry unfazed by oil price falls
• Celsias turns a jaundiced eye on biofuels
• South East Asia expanding biodiesel feedstock production

[Source: Physorg.com]

Last year Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo released an Energy Independence Agenda for her country that called for sixty percent energy self-sufficiency by 2010. Now the president has signed a bill into law that makes part of that plan mandatory. The Republic Act 9367 mandates five percent ethanol be blended into all gasoline by 2009 and ten percent by 2011. For diesel they have to add one percent biodiesel within three months and two percent within two years. The new law also eliminates the tax on the bio-fuel portion of the fuels.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]

It seems that the biofuels industry continues to expand with the news this week that Brunei National Petroleum Co. is looking to partner with the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) to build a biodiesel plant in the Philippines. Recently at an Asean Council on Petroleum meeting in Indonesia, PNOC officials revealed that they have received expressions of interest from several possible investors to pursue biofuels development.

PNOC president Pedro Aquino Jr. has discussed biofuels development with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, especially in regards to the feedstocks of sweet sorghum for ethanol production, and jatropha curcas for biodiesel.

Analysis: Biofuels represent a huge opportunity to emerging economies to enhance their agricultural sector, and the lives of their farmers, while reducing costly oil imports. The Philippines in particular has shown a great willingness to pursue a biofuels strategy as an opportunity to encourage poor farmers not to fell forest timbers to escape poverty.

Related:

• "I pledge allegiance to getting better mileage"
• ABG POLL: Biodiesel Feedstock
• Biofuels conference highlights dependence on subsidies

[Source: ABS CBN Interactive]

While rapeseed/canola continues to be the main biodiesel feedstock in Europe, and soy dominates U.S. biodiesel production, a host of other plants are moving biodiesel forward in other parts of the world. In the Philippines, the Biofuel Act is about to pass into law mandating the immediate use of one percent biodiesel, increasing to two percent after two years. The numbers seem small but it has prompted a massive in-surge of investment in biodiesel production capacity with Chemrez Technologies planning to start construction of their third biodiesel processing plant shortly. The third plant, which cost more than P2 billion (US$40 million) and can produce 240,000 tons of biodiesel annually, is designed to meet the surge in demand once the second phase of the Biofuel Act comes into effect.

The Philippines are heavily promoting the Jatropha Curcas plant as their preferred biodiesel feedstock. Jatropha is also gaining popularity in Indonesia with a Dutch expert claiming that Indonesia may be the first country in the world to commercially use biodiesel produced from jatropha. Professor H.J. Heeres, of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands says that more then 25 million hectares (62 million acres) of land could be suitable for jatropha in Indonesia. Officials in charge of biofuel development in Indonesia have said that the government plans to produce just over 15,000 tonnes of biofuels from jatropha by the end of 2007.

Jatropha, which is being planted in India and western China as well, is seen as more environmentally friendly and sustainable than palm oil, but at least for the time being, the bulk of Indonesia's biodiesel production will come from palm oil. Biodiesel produced from palm oil is already being exported overseas from Malaysia and biodiesel export dollars are expected to have a big impact on the Malaysian economy. The Malaysian government has already granted around 75 licenses to produce the biodiesel and five production plants are already in operation or in the process of getting off the ground. The Malaysian Palm Oil Board, the governing body for the palm oil industry, itself is building three biodiesel plants. Biodiesel is exported from Malaysia to Germany, the U.S. and other European countries.

Related:

• Indonesia looks to biodiesel made from jatropha seeds
• Biodiesel row in Kenya

[Source: ABS-CBN]

I'm looking forward to a new editorial template, one that doesn't just praise the promise of biofuels and wish for more amazing green cars to come soon. But I'll just have to wait a while longer. It seems this template is popular the world over.

The Manila Times is the latest to adopt the pro-green car position, with an editorial over the weekend that says the Philippines needs to get with the program. Manila may only have a few ethanol or other bioblend fuel shops, it says, but that only means there's room for government to encourage the biofuel industry in the country. The article also says the only thing that will get customers to embrace biofuels is when it makes sense for their bottom line. The Hollywood glamour of a hybrid and the environmental benefits of biofuels only appeal to some, but saving money appeals to everyone.

Either the authors are mistaken or Flexible Fuel Vehicle in the Philippines are different than those sold in the U.S., since they write that the Flexible Fuel Vehicles (they call them "flexi-fuel") can run on an ethanol blend up to E20. I thought it was up to E85.

[Source: Manila Times]