Work Starts on First Ethanol Plant in Vietnam Northern Province

The Petrochemical and Bio Fuel JS Company (PVB) and contractors of PetroVietnam Construction Joint Stock Company (PVC), Alfa Laval of India and Delta T of the U.S. kicked off construction of the first bio-ethanol production plant in northern Phu Tho province on June 21.

 

The US$80-million plant, the first of its kind in northern Vietnam, will cover 50 hectares of land in the local Co Tiet commune of Tam Nong district.

 

Once the first-phase of operations begin in late 2010, the plant will use around 7,000 tons of cascara and sugar cane a day to refine into 100,000 cubic meters of ethanol C2H5OH with a purity rate of at least 99.7 per cent per year.

 

The plant’s annual capacity will be raised to 200,000 cubic meters in the second stage, said Nguyen Phuong Dong, PVB’s CEO. 

 

The plant is part of Vietnam’s efforts to turn out 250,000 tons of ethanol and vegetable fuel oil by 2015 to feed 1 per cent of the national petroleum demand with a goal of producing 1.8 million tons of these products by 2025 in order to meet 5 per cent of the national demand.

 

The country currently imports between 15 million and 16 million tons of various fuels a year to meet the 10 per cent per annum rise in the country’s energy demand.

 

According to global energy corporations, by 2012, world supplies of ethanol will have increased to 79.3 billion liters and the utilization rate of ethanol as fuel will have increased to 85 per cent. (Local sources)