With the current high prices of fuel, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a project of a Balik Scientist hosted by the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, may be a cheaper and environmental-friendly alternative to it.
Dr. Fiorello B. Abenes is leading the technology transfer and commercialization of MMSU’s Village-Scale Nipahol Technology (VSNT). Abenes is a Professor Emeritus in California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in California, USA, and a recipient of the Balik Scientist Program of the Department of Science and Technology, the DOST-BSP said.
Nipahol Technology may be used as cooking fuel and is seen to replace LPG fuel for stoves.
“Dirty cooking is still a problem in many of the rural areas of the Philippines. The use of firewood or charcoal emit unhealthy levels of particulates and noxious gases that affect the respiratory track, mostly affecting women [who do household cooking]. Ethanol as cooking fuel is cleaner,” Abenes said.
Nipahol Technology is an innovation produced from extracting sap from nipa into “Nipahol” at a facility housed at the National Bioenergy Research and Innovation Center of the MMSU, the DOST-BSP explained.
“We have developed a prototype that we hope we can scale up and make into a cooking stove suitable for indoor use and in commercial establishments,” he added.
Although the stove prototype is yet to be developed as pressurized, Abenes and his team successfully created a Nipahol-fueled stove with burner and functions through the pull of gravity, DOST-BSP said.
The successful adoption of MMSU’s VSNT rests on finding more uses for the ethanol produced from nipa.
The use of Nipahol as cooking fuel is seen to accelerate the commercialization of the VSNT technology.
Technologies from nipa is seen to provide a multitude of uses, given its commercial viability in different portions of the value chain.
The Balik Scientist Program aims to promote information exchange and accelerate the flow of new technology into the country through strengthening the scientific and technological manpower of the academe and public and private institutions.
The program encourages Filipino scientists, technologists, and experts abroad to return to the Philippines and share their expertise in order to promote scientific, agro-industrial, and economic development, including the development of the country’s human capital in science, technology, and innovation.
The enactment of the Balik Scientist Act in June 2018 also paved the way for the DOST to grant returning Filipino scientists with competitive benefits, such as daily subsistence allowance, health insurance and roundtrip airfare.
Image credits: BSP