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PetroVietnam hastens plans for ethanol plants in centre, south
The Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) is hastening plans to add two more ethanol plants to its first plant in northern Phu Tho Province.
The new facilities would be built in the central province of Quang Ngai and the southern province of Binh Phuoc.
"We have already signed contracts with partners to direct the projects," said Vu Hoang Nhat, a representative of Petro-Vietnam, a key project investor.
The PetroVietnam Central Biofuels Joint Stock Co has already been set up to build the plant in Quang Ngai. Its stakeholders include the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Ltd, PetroVietnam Finance Co (PVFC) and Petroleum Services and Tourism Co (Petrosetco).
"Construction of the plant will begin next month and the first product will be brought to the market in March 2011," said PetroVietnam Central Biofuels Joint Stock Co director Ho Sy Long. "The total cost of the plant will be about VND1.5 trillion, with about 60 per cent of the capital contributed by the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co, 30 per cent by Petrosetco and 10 per cent from Petro-Vietnam Finance."
Cassava fuel
The plant would have a designed capacity of 100 million litres (about 100,000 tonnes) of ethanol per year and would run at 80-per-cent capacity in the first year.
The main raw material would be cassava, and the plant would operate using technology licensed from the EU, Long said.
Meanwhile, the planned Binh Phuoc plant has attracted a foreign partner, Japan’s Itochu Co, said Pham Anh Tuan, director of the Binh Phuoc Orient Biofuels Co Ltd.
"PetroVietnam choose Itochu because the group wants to diversify the investors in its ethanol plants," said Tuan. "In addition, Itochu has had it in mind to invest in Viet Nam for some time."
Tuan said that his company was designing the plant and choosing a company to supply technology.
"We hope that the plant will begin construction in March next year and be completed 18 months later, with a capacity of 100 million litres per year," he said.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the country needs between 150,000 and 300,000 tonnes of ethanol per year to produce ethanol-blended fuels. Once the three plants are in operation, they will be able to meet domestic demand, using cassava and sugarcane as raw materials.
Countries such as Brazil, the US, India and China consider biofuels a strategic solution to dependence on non-renewable energy sources and now lead the world in biofuels production.
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