On May 22^nd, Swedish Environmental Technologies for Vietnam (SENTECH), together with the Embassy of Sweden and the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment – Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE), held the conference “Gateway to Swedish Greentech” in Hanoi.

According to Mr. Mikael Johnasson, the Second Secretary of Trade and Sweden Promotion of the Embassy of Sweden in Vietnam, every year, the Swedish government invests millions of Krone in research and development of environment technology.

Conference “Gateway to Swedish Greentech”

Sweden is now the leading country in Europe in consuming organic food and recycling beverage bottles and cans. It is also the country with the highest usage of renewable energy in Europe. Attending the conference, Swedish enterprises introduced their advanced environment-friendly technologies such as: intelligent non-incinerator waste disposal, domestic water disposal using natural microbicide technology or solar energy.

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, Centre of Resource Management and Environmental Protection Consulting and Training, is giving a speech about the current situation and legal framework of waste management in Vietnam

The conference is supposed to connect Vietnamese and Swedish enterprises in applying “green” technologies. According to Dr. Vu Trung Thang, Deputy Director of ISPONRE, this conference will help achieve the second goal of Vietnam in green growth strategy. It is “to apply and develop modern technology in order to effectively use natural resources, to reduce greenhouse gas and to contribute to the response to climate change”.

SENTECH has fostered technology collaboration with Vietnam in some areas like energy saving, water treatment, solar energy, biogas and waste disposal. In the future, SENTECH will focus on introducing disposal technologies of hazardous waste (medical, abattoir, infected poultry) and treatment technologies of domestic water, as well as providing supporting services for Vietnamese enterprises to connect with financial mechanisms.

Mr. Mikael Johnasson, the Second Secretary of Trade and Sweden Promotion of the Embassy of Sweden in Vietnam is introducing mobile water filters used solar energy

Besides the activities of the conference, Sweden also had a “green” technology booth in the Entech Hanoi 2014. In its first time to Entech Hanoi 2014, the Swedish booth brought disposal technologies of hospital waste, urban waste and integrated waste and water treatment technologies.

The non-incinerator waste disposal technology in hospital has received considerable attention. This is the technology applied in more than 70% of hospitals in Sweden. After being processed in electric furnaces, medical waste is pulverized and made solid tablets. These tablets are then used to generate thermoelectricity or to produce cement.

Swedish booth in Entech Hanoi 2014

Thanks to this technology, it only takes less than 7,000 dong to process 1kg of hospital waste while the cost in Vietnam now is about 20,000 dong. If being applied in hospitals in Vietnam, besides significantly saving material costs, it will also help reduce environment pollution and epidemic outbreaks.

Huong Nguyen