RP pushes to host Asia-Pacific bio-energy research centre

The government has proposed to US government and private institutions the establishment in the Philippines of a bioenergy research centre for Asia and the Pacific, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

“We talked with USDA and Colorado University about technology exchange and putting up an international bioenergy research centre for Asia and the Pacific that will be based here,” Marriz B. Agbon, president of the Agriculture department’s Philippine Agriculture Development and Commercial Corp., said in a phone interview last weekend.

Agbon said the centre will focus on developing technologies that will use agricultural waste and byproducts as fuel to generate power.

“The Philippines has an average of 50 million metric tonnes of agri [sic] waste in a year. This shows the country’s biomass potential,” Agbon said.

He said the University of the Philippines campus in Los Ba�os, Laguna, is a potential site for the proposed facility.

Agbon said he presented the proposal during a biofuel conference in Denver, Colorado, in the last week of April. He added that he expects developments on this proposal next month.

Business World Online

Tags: Asia bio-energy, Asia energy

Posted by VBN on May 12 2010. Filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry