From Corn Capital to Clean Fuel: Sunbird's Isabela Site Visit

The Philippines will import more than half the fuel ethanol it blends this year. Sunbird went to the country's corn belt to see whether that can change. The short answer: Isabela has the corn, the land and a city hall that wants the plant.

In October, Richard Bennett, CEO of Sunbird Group, visited the City of Ilagan in Isabela province with Eric Perez and Nicholas Barter. They met Mayor Jay Diaz and city officials, alongside Francis Capistrano, UNDP consultant, and Elaine Saniel, LGU advisor to the EU-Philippines Green Economy Partnership (City of Ilagan post). The agenda was bio-energy investment. Ilagan is one of ten cities in the EU-funded Green LGUs programme, implemented by UNDP and co-led by DILG, which backs local circular-economy transitions. Turning corn into fuel, feed and jobs at home is about as circular as agriculture gets.

A mandate in search of a feedstock

Every litre of Philippine gasoline has carried 10% ethanol since 2011. The country has never been able to make enough of it. USDA puts 2026 fuel-ethanol use at 875 million litres (ML). Domestic distilleries, almost all running on sugarcane and molasses, will make about 385 ML. The other ~490 ML, or 56%, arrives by ship, nearly nine-tenths of it from the US (USDA via Advanced Biofuels USA). Now Manila wants more. On 15 October, DOE Undersecretary Sales confirmed that the National Biofuel Board has begun studying E15 (Inquirer). There is no circular or date yet, but the arithmetic is simple:

	E10 today	E15
Fuel-ethanol demand (ML/yr)	~875	~1,310
Domestic output (ML/yr)	~385	~385
Import gap (ML/yr)	~490	~925
Gap value at local reference price (US$ bn/yr)	~0.6	~1.2

The feedstock door is opening too. In September the Department of Agriculture and DOE said corn could fill idle distillery capacity, the first official opening for grain alongside sugar. Agriculture Secretary Tiu Laurel put it plainly: "the problem is not the availability of corn"; it is the price (DA).

Then there is 2026 itself. The Strait of Hormuz closure pushed diesel above PHP 130/L in March and triggered a national energy emergency (summary). Fuel grown in Isabela does not transit the Gulf. That argument now needs no slide deck.

Why Isabela

If you were designing a corn-ethanol site from scratch, you would draw something like Ilagan. Cagayan Valley is the heart of Philippine corn, and Isabela yellow corn yields 4.56 t/ha against 3.3 t/ha nationally (PSA). Ilagan calls itself the corn capital, and it has 1,166 km² to back the claim.

The scale works. A 100 ML/yr plant, bigger than any distillery in the country today, would take roughly 250-270 kt of corn a year: around 50,000 hectares at Isabela yields. That alone would cover more than a fifth of today's ethanol imports.

The market rules help too. Under DOE circulars, oil companies must buy their allocated share of locally produced ethanol before they import, or pay PHP 500 per litre not taken (DC 2011-12-0013). Domestic supply gets first call on the pump.

And the city wants it.

"Ilagan grows the corn. Now we want to turn it into fuel, jobs and value right here at home. A project like Sunbird's fits our Liveable City 2030 vision and the circular-economy work we are doing with the EU and UNDP, and the City stands ready to help move it forward." — Mayor Josemarie "Jay" Diaz, City of Ilagan

Fuel and feed, not fuel versus feed

Corn-for-ethanol makes the feed industry nervous, and with reason. The Philippines grows ~8.3 Mt of corn a year, feed takes ~5.8 Mt of it, and the country still imports ~2 Mt (USDA).

The answer is in how a dry mill works. Ethanol takes the starch; the protein, fat and fibre come back out as distillers' dried grains (DDGS), a high-protein feed. Each tonne of corn gives roughly 400 litres of ethanol and 0.3 tonnes of DDGS. A 100 ML plant would send 75-85 kt of DDGS a year back to Philippine livestock and poultry producers, displacing imported protein meal. The farmer side matters as much. A plant buying a quarter of a million tonnes a year is a reliable offtaker, and contract farming with better seed and agronomy can lift Isabela yields further. Higher yields mean more corn for feed and fuel, not a fight over the same tonne.

Next leg: sustainable aviation fuel

Ethanol is the business today. Jet fuel is where it can go next.

In early October, DOE proposed a 1% SAF blend by 2030, with a CAAP-led committee to make the recommendation (Philstar). Coverage is still open: about 4-5 ML a year if it applies to domestic flights only, about 30-35 ML if it covers all fuel uplifted, including international departures. Philippine Airlines is aiming higher, at 5% SAF by 2030, and Philippine carriers face CORSIA offsetting from 2027.

Alcohol-to-jet turns ethanol into SAF. A plant built in Isabela for road fuel can later add a jet train fed from the same ethanol, the same corn and the same farmers. That is the sequence: earn on ethanol first, then step up the value chain as the aviation market firms up.

Capital: working with Geomotion Energy

Good projects in emerging markets rarely die for lack of corn. They die for lack of bankable capital. Sunbird is working with Geomotion Energy, a renewable fuels platform spanning bioethanol, SAF and green methanol, for access to project finance and technology partners.

The split is deliberate. Sunbird does what it is built for: feedstock, land, local partners and taking an integrated agri-energy project to final investment decision. Geomotion brings the investor network and capital structure to build it.

"The Philippines needs the fuel, Isabela grows the corn, and today most of the gap arrives by tanker from the US Gulf. A plant in Ilagan keeps that value, and the feed, in Cagayan Valley. We start with ethanol, which the market needs now, and build towards SAF as the aviation mandate firms up. With Geomotion alongside us on finance, Ilagan is the right place to start." — Richard Bennett, CEO, Sunbird Group