CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
Nowadays, the use of petroleum products is an essential thing that is obtained from the crude oil as it is processed in oil refineries. Some of its by- product include Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), fuel oil, gasoline, kerosene and the like. These products are highly consumed by humans. Reports revealed that people staggered almost 90 million barrels of petroleum every day (Adair, 2015). The over-extraction and over-used of rock-oil have caused negative effects and damaged the Earth’s biosphere that resulted in the pollution of air, land, and water that contribute to climate change. Although there is a newly-alternative fossil fuel that is formed from natural processes, still, it cannot solve retrograded problems in petroleum products and if this trend would not stop, the petroleum supply will disappear in the coming years (Adair, 2015).…show more content… In the Philippines, petroleum gas is one of the widely used by-products of bioethanol. In fact, according to the Department of Energy (DOE), in the year 2016, petroleum product imports totalled 86,108 MB, an increase of 12.9 percent from 2015’s 76,276 MB. The Philippine government implemented to enforce the Minimum Inventory Requirement (MIR) given the continuing risks faced by the downstream oil industry sector such as geopolitical instability and supply delivery problems to areas affected by calamities (e.g. typhoon, flood, earthquake, etc.). Meanwhile, a total of 1,632 MB ethanol was imported for fuel use during the year which dropped by 14.3 percent from 1,904 MB of 2015 for it is stated on the Republic Act No. 9367 of 2006 that all gasoline to be sold in the country should be E-10 (gasoline with 10% bioethanol content). Since petroleum gas is largely consumed by Filipinos, its price climbs relentlessly, and because of that, the Philippines is in search for an alternative material for petroleum