Deputy Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to build a biofuel distribution and consumption network in Vietnam, and build and issue Regulations on the use and distribution of Biofuel.

Biofuels from cassava tubers

Ministry of Industry and Trade in coordination with Ministry of Science and Technology will issue National regulations on manufacturing and distributing products using biofuels. An interdisciplinary executive board is required to supervise the implementation of schemes and projects by ministries, sectors, localities and enterprises to ensure overall quality and project’s schedule.

A six-month periodical detailed report on implementation of projects and any suggested solutions to improve the quality of the projects should be submitted to Prime Minister.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Planning and Investment, plan specific cultivated areas to provide raw materials for biofuel projects.

Biofuel industry in Viet Nam is speeding up. Under government’s plan, by 2011, the country will have five ethanol factories in operation with total capacity of 365,000 tons per year, enough to produce 7.3 million tons of E5 gasoline.

Biofuels has many notable advantages over traditional fuels (like coal, oil) as they are environment-friendly, producing less greenhouse gases and much less pollution.

Biofuels could be an inexpensive yet effective solution to energy saving in factories. Costs of engine replacement or improvement are minimized. Biofuels also have much lower cost than energy products from fossils.

So far in Viet Nam, there have been many projects producing biofuel from cassava, molasses, e.g. Dong Xanh J.S. Company’s investment on an ethanol production plant with capacity of 120 million liters per year, or some other in-progress plants such as Dung Quat and Binh Phuoc ethanol production plants each with designed capacity of 100 million liters per year.

In the north, Petrochemical and Biofuel J.S.Co. – Vietnam Petroleum Coorperation has launched construction of ethanol production plant in Phu Tho, with capacity of 100,000 m3/year. Besides, there have already been two production plants producing bio-diesel from fish fat in Can Tho and An Giang with total capacity of 80 tons per day.

As proposed in Project of Biofuel Development by 2015 approved by Prime Minister, by 2015 biofuel producing technology in Vietnam will reach the world’s advanced level, output of ethanol and vegetable oil will reach 1.8 million tons, providing about 5% petroleum consumption of the whole country.

By Nguyen An