HAVING secured approval from the Department of Agriculture (DA), giant king grass has been shipped to and planted by Sagay Central Inc., in Negros Occidental, Walnut, California-based Viaspace Inc. said.
Viaspace grows its proprietary grass “as a low-carbon fuel for electricity-generating power plants; for energy pellets; and as a feedstock for bio methane production and cellulosic biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials.”
In a statement, Viaspace said the grass, which is simply a biomass, was harvested from its nursery in Southern California and inspected by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to meet the conditions of the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance of the DA.
“The USDA found the giant king grass to be free of pests and disease, and issued the required phytosanitary certificate,” the company said in a statement.
The company added the grass-planting material was sent by airfreight to Manila where it cleared customs, and then was forwarded by ferry to Negros.
Viaspace CEO Carl Kukkonen traveled to the Philippines to meet with officials from Sagay Central and to personally oversee the planting of the grass, the company said.
Sagay Central is a sugar-milling and sugar-growing company founded in 1968. It crushes 4,000 metric tons of sugar cane every day and produces 150,000 tons of sugar per year. Sagay Central’s products include raw sugar, washed sugar and specialty Muscavado sugar for the domestic market and export.
Its plants needs to burn fuel to crush or press sugar in a series of mills to remove the juice that is processed into crystalline sugar and molasses. The remaining chopped fibrous sugar cane called “bagasse” is burned in a boiler that produces heat for the sugar-making processes and electricity to power the sugar mill.
“We plan to use our existing sugar mill to press out the juice from the Giant King Grass and create ‘Giant King Grass bagasse,’ which we will burn in our boiler,” Sagay Central President Romie Cortez was quoted in the statement as saying.
Cortez said Sagay Central signed a contract with Viaspace in 2013.
“We are happy after some delays to get this important biomass renewable-energy project under way.”
Cortez added that with Viaspace’s grass, they expect “to be able to operate our proposed power plant 12 months per year and provide the excess electricity to the national grid.”
Viaspace said its proprietary, high yield, dedicated biomass energy crop can also be cut frequently at 4 to 9 feet tall to become an “excellent animal feed.”
The company said aside from California and the Philippines, it grows the grass in Arizona, Hawaii, Saint Croix Virgin Islands, Nicaragua, South Africa, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, Guyana and Jamaica.
In its latest statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Viaspace said it has incurred significant losses from operations, resulting in an accumulated deficit of roughly $49.85 million.