The Philippines is compelled to tap genetic engineering for the development of biological fuels such as ethanol and coconut diesel that could provide alternative fuel that will ease down price of energy and relieve stress on the environment.

While the government has adopted definite policies in promoting use of biological fuels, Desiree M. Hautea, director of the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB), said research institutions in the country may further enhance the use of these fuels.

"These projects are in the pipeline. We may develop varieties of crops such as sugarcane which will really designed to be used as biofuel because right now the main use for our crop is as food. We will be able to recover a higher biomass, higher carbon content. It will be very useful because of the high price of fuel and our energy limitations (oil import dependence)," she said in an interview.

Aside from sugarcane which is a raw material for making ethanol, an additive for gasoline, certain crops whose carbon content may be maximized in order to tap their full energy potential are coconut (whose coconut methyl ester is used as additive for diesel), cassava, corn, and other commodities with starch.

Hautea who finished a doctorate on plant genetics and breeding at the University of Illinois, said that the development of biological biofuels, for products that are used for health and the environment or for what you call bioremediation. Energy biotechnology is now viewed as a real industry because of the different products that can be developed. And as a tropical country, we have many plants that may be developed for this, she said.

"We have many waste products such as bagasse from sugarcane which are just dumped in the soil. We could develop these so that these are not wasted."

For certain countries, Japan for instance which buys one of the world's biggest volume of biological fuels, cost is not much of a factor, she said. Japan is expected to need 1.8 billion liters of fuel ethanol per year after adopting a policy to mix ethanol with gasoline by up to three percent.

The Philippines could actually export ethanol given a policy on local use and export development. Brazil which is world's largest ethanol exporter runs its cars on 25 percent ethanol mix. Brazil is also targeting to export ethanol to China by 2008.

Trading firm Mitsui and Co. estimated that ethanol demand for fuel will double to 35 million kilometers within this decade.

"We estimate the potential size of Japan's ethanol market at nearly six million kiloliters a year, based on the assumption that Japan would adopt an ethanol-to-gasoline blending ratio of 10 percent," said Mitsui biomass project manager Norimichi Okuda.

Hautea noted that in the US, the government through its Department of Energy has been allocating a significant research fund for biological fuels even as the US is now one of the world's biggest user of ethanol using corn as feedstock. China is also seen to use much of its corn for ethanol in the near future. However, she admitted that the Philippines has limited fund for such endeavor.

"We can do it, but we have to spend so much. If you're a developing country, the most you can usually do is adaptive research," she said.