Introduction
Biomass energy, a form of energy from organic matter, accounts for about 15% of the Philippine’s energy mix. The Philippines, an agricultural country and an archipelago with growing urban centers, is rich in potential biomass resources. However, the Philippines is still dependent upon fossil fuels. While generating both fossil and biological fuels require processing of organic matter, fossil fuels release the carbon from deep underground that has not been actively released for millions of years.
Definition and Process
According to the Department of Energy (2011), biomass, as a source of renewable energy, refers to biodegradable material than can be harnessed for useful energy. This extends to plant, algal, animal manure and urban solid waste. Both fossil (oil, coal, gas) and biological (biomass) fuels can be derived…show more content… Rice, coconut and sugarcane are major crops, accounting for allotted land of about 7.9 million hectares (Dalusung, 2012; Baconguis, 2007). Furthermore, the Philippines also has the largest number of coconut trees in the world (REEP, 2014). As such, wastes could be utilized as biomass feed such as rice husks, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, coconut wastes are readily available. These wastes from rice, coconut and sugarcane account for about 34 million tons of possible biomass resources (Dalusung, 2012; Baconguis, 2007).
From the 2014 datasets of the Philippine Statistics Authority, rice husks and especially rice straws productions are high in Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Region, and SOCCSKSARGEN. On the other hand, sugarcane is most produced in 2014 in Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Central Visayas, and CALABARZON. Also, the largest producing regions of coconuts with husks in 2014 are Davao Region (2.3 million metric tons), Northern Mindanao (1.8 million metric tons), Zamboanga Peninsula (1.7 million metric tons) and CALABARZON (1.4 million metric