THE bioethanol arm of listed Roxas Holdings Inc., Roxol Bioenergy Corp. (RBC), has been suspended again by the La Carlota City in Negros Occidental after its facility emitted a foul odor.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, the company said RBC has been ordered to stop operations by La Carlota City Mayor Luis Jalandoni III amid assurances of proper treatment of their waste.

The city council passed a resolution to suspend the validity of the business permit granted to Roxol Bioenergy Corporation to operate an ethanol plant, the mayor said.

The council also issued a cease and desist order, preventing it from operating the plant “until it has implemented the necessary measures to effectively eradicate the extremely foul and highly obnoxious odor emanating from the ethanol plant wastewater treatment pond, which can seriously compromise the health as well as the general welfare and convenience of the residents of La Carlota City.”

The suspension may be lifted if the company take “genuine” measures “showing substantial mitigation of obnoxious foul odor.”

The same office also issued a 30-day cease and desist order to RBC in September last year also over the alleged foul odor coming from the same plant in Barangay Nagasi.

RBC has a rated capacity of producing 30 million liters of biotehanol.

It uses raw sugar, sugar syrup, and molasses — a by-product of sugar — as feedstock in producing bioethanol. — Janina C. Lim

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