What will I do with the wastewater?” Gerardo Tee, chief operating officer of Absolut Distillery immediately thought when the ethyl alcohol maker started its Php800-million project to boost production four years ago. Until then, Absolut Distillery, located in Lian, Batangas, mainly sold its daily output of 60,000 liters to parent company Tanduay Distilleries, the country’s third biggest distilled spirits

manufacturer. In turn, Tanduay used ethyl alcohol as raw material to make Tanduay Rhum, Gin Kapitan, Compañero Brandy and other hard drinks that account for 25% of the market for distilled spirits. Both companies belong to the LT Group, the holding arm of Lucio Tan, the country’s third biggest billionaireas of March 2016.

But demand from gasoline retailers for ethanol – in compliance with a 2006 law requiring petroleum products to be blended with biofuels – encouraged Absolut Distillery to build a new 100,000 liter per day alcohol making facility. The new plant’s output can either be processed into biofuels for petroleum retailers or delivered to Tanduay, which uses it to make liquor.

Despite the obvious financial windfall from the increased production, Tee had good reasons to be concerned. The process of making alcohol, which is extracted from molasses, produces harmful effluents. When the untreated wastewater is released into streams or rivers, it can kill fish and other aquatic life.