Consistent route to use biofuel

24/05/2013

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang addressing the conference focusing on resolving difficulties for biofuel enterprises in Hanoi said that

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang addressing the conference focusing on resolving difficulties for biofuel enterprises in Hanoi said that: “It is necessary to implement roadmap in the use of biofuel together with traditional fuels to ensure national energy security and investment efficiency.”

Difficulties

According to the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN), in 2012, Binh Phuoc and Dung Quat bio-ethanol plants produced and provided to the market 38,605cu.m of E100 bio-ethanol. In terms of E5 biofuel, PVN sold 16,500cu.m, 22,050cu.m and 9,600cu.m in 2011, 2012 and in the first four months of 2013 respectively.

The country currently has about 175 stores in charge of distributing biofuel products. Due to difficulties in the domestic market, the plants’ biofuel products must sell at low prices. Almost plants only run about 20 percent of its capacity. Biofuel projects are still new in Vietnam and contractors do not have enough experiences, causing negative effects to these projects.

Finding out raw materials serving production is not simple. Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Deputy Head Nguyen Phu Cuong said that cassava providing to plants was competitive with the fields of animal feed and starch production. Cassava is seasonal material, thus, to ensure enough raw materials for production in the whole year, enterprises must have large working capital to purchase and invest in storages. In addition, investing in material areas serving production is difficult due to the lack of support mechanisms and policies.

Determination to use biofuel

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang said that it was necessary to further improve coordination between ministries and enterprises to resolve problems. Enterprises should share tasks and discuss suitable roadmap to resolve difficulties for each other. “The time to start using biofuel in some cities is not far. Therefore, it needs determination and solutions to use biofuel at the moment,” Deputy Minister Le Duong Quang said.

To overcome difficulties in terms of mechanisms and policies, the Department of Domestic Market was assigned by the government to amend Draft Decree 84 on oil and gas management and business in order to create favorable conditions for E5 biofuel business enterprises.

In terms of enterprises, to put biofuel into use, PVN proposed to develop material areas for three plants in Phu Tho, Quang Ngai and Binh Phuoc provinces. In terms of the biofuel consumer market, E5 biofuel should be exempted environmental tax because it is environmentally friendly product.

Improving consumer awareness is also an important factor. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade collaborated with PVN to adopt the project on improving consumer awareness in the development of biofuel. PVN proposed to soon approve its project in order to propagandize messages in terms of biofuel usage to community.

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