Use of vegetable oil for farm machines seen

Science City of Munoz— Amid fluctuating fuel prices, scientists at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) here have started encouraging farmers to process used vegetable cooking oil for fuel to run their machines.

“[Biofuel processed from vegetable oil] is cheaper than the pumped diesel that farmers buy to operate their farm machines [such as tractors, threshers and hand pumps],” said Dr. Ricardo Jorge, supervising scientist of PhilRice’s rice engineering and mechanization division.

All farmers need to do is mix potassium hydroxide, alcohol and used oil, allow the mixture to settle for 18 hours, and feed the liquid into the engine, based on a biofuel system developed by United States-based inventor, Rico Cruz, he said.

“We have tried it and it worked,” Jorge said.

He said Cruz gave local farmers a three-hour lecture and demonstration on Aug. 12 and was successful in fueling an old jeepney with his “Cruzesterification” process.

A Boholano, Cruz is an agricultural engineering graduate of the Visayas State College of Agriculture (now Visayas State University).

He returned to the country last month to conduct lecture-demonstrations in Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao. Jorge quoted the inventor as saying that “producing biodiesel using ‘Cruzesterification’ is as easy as making coffee [because] the catalyst is the coffee, alcohol is the sugar and oil is the hot water.”

“Blend the three ingredients and you have ‘coffee’ or the biodiesel in minutes,” Jorge quoted Cruz as saying in one of his lectures.

Farmers need to mix 100 liters of used oil, 1.1 kilograms of potassium hydroxide and 20 liters of methanol to produce 100 liters of biodiesel. Potassium hydroxide costs P80 per kilogram while a liter of methanol costs no more than P80. Farmers can buy 17 kilograms of used vegetable oil for P400. A liter of biodiesel using these ingredients can be valued at P38, Jorge said.

He said Cruz spent 20 years to develop his biodiesel system and it is now being used in Oregon. Jorge said PhilRice is considering setting up a demonstration plant for “Cruzesterification,” although cooking oil is not in short supply.

“We can already teach farmers how to do it in smaller volumes,” he said. “On our part, we will certainly use this [version of] biodiesel for the machines that we use in our compound and demonstration farms.”

Ruben Miranda, PhilRice deputy executive director for development, said the technology creates opportunities for farmers to boost their farm efficiency without increasing their expenses.