Philippine’s SMC converting coal power plants to biomass

• 6 years ago (2018-10-05)
• David Flin

Asia 901 Coal 301

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San Miguel Corporation (SMC) of the Philippines has announced that it will be converting all of its coal-fired facilities into biomass power plants using rice husks as feedstock. This is part of its move to transition to renewable energy generation.

SMC’s energy unit is planning to replace coal with rice husks as fuel for its circulating fluidised bed (CFB) power plants to help boost farmers’ incomes while pursuing plans to use cleaner technology and reduce emissions. Ramon Ang, President and COO of SMC, said: “Instead of burning or dumping rice husks, we want to fully utilise this agricultural waste product both as energy source for our power plants and income source for our rice farmers. This way, we reduce our emissions, we encourage more farmers to increase rice production, make their life better, and help address a perennial food security challenge.”

SMC Global Power Holdings operates two coal-fired power facility. One is a 600 MW facility in Limay, Bataan, the other a 300 MW plant in Malita, Davao. Both of these facilities use CFB combustion technology.