Ethanol offers clean energy source
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01COM270807 

The first plant to produce ethanol fuel from biomass in Viet Nam is expected to come on line in 2008. Petrosetco deputy director Ho Sy Long spoke to Dai Doan Ket (Great Unity) newspaper about the project.

What are the benefits of producing ethanol fuel?
As Viet Nam depends highly on imported petrol, production research on biological ethanol fuel is a top priority.

Every year, Viet Nam has to import an average of 13 million tonnes of petrol, 3 million of which are used for social and economic development. We need 300,000 tonnes of ethanol to meet the demand of a 10 per cent ethanol mix into the number above. According to international scientists’ statistics, with the existing sources of petroleum and the human race’s current usage, we will face a shortage of this resource in the next 50 years.

The investment into ethanol production is a breakthrough in setting up a new energy source in Viet Nam. It will be used not only as a partial replacement of petroleum energy, but also as a clean and environment-friendly energy source. ethanol’s CO2 emissions can be reduced 50 per cent more than normal petrol, helping reduce pollution caused by industry and transportation.

With the country’s economic growth rate at more than 8 per cent a year, the Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) cannot meet the domestic demand for petrol. Knowing this, PetroVietnam decided to invest in increasing the reserve, as well as start research into producing a biological fuel. At the moment, the Government has encouraged enterprises to invest in this sector, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade was assigned to compile regulations and policies for investors.

Under the agreement signed with Japan’s Itochu Group, when will Viet Nam start producing ethanol?
For the past 10 years, Petrosetco has worked with Itochu to supply a large amount of sliced cassava from Viet Nam to China and South Korea for ethanol production. We then realised that we could not continue to export this material only to then import the products made from it.

With the 1.2 million tonnes of cassava exported every year, we can produce at least 400 million litres of ethanol, which meets our market’s current demand.

After thorough research on Viet Nam’s market, PetroVietnam has assigned us, Petrosetco, to a joint venture with Itochu to build a factory with an ethanol capacity of 100 million litres a year, 99.8 per cent of which will come from sliced cassava. Such capacity meets only one third of the current demand; however, in the near future we will build an additional three factories. These factories will utilise materials from cassava, sugarcane, corn, and especially rice, which will become the main resource in future ethanol production.

We are researching technical and economic foundations, as well as selecting contractors who have the experience and ability to work with advanced technologies to produce qualified products and ensure environment protection.
The first factory is expected to open in the third quarter of 2009.

At first, ethanol will only be supplied in the southern market, though Petrosetco will continue researching markets in the north and central. — VNS