Vietnam Launches its Own Bio-fuel

On Monday Vietnam launched its first venture into fuel based on ethanol, with the aim of ensuring national energy security and reducing its economy’s dependence on petroleum products, according to national energy supplier PetroVietnam.

The fuel is made of up to 5% ethanol, and was produced by a factory in the province of Phu Tho, in the north of the country, that cost $80 million US to construct.

It is made from ethanol imported from Brazil and sugar cane and cassava grown in Vietnam.

It is currently distributed only in Hanoi, but PetroVietnam plans to extend the experience throughout the county, which it says will also benefit the environment in many other major cities across the country, especially in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and the heavily polluted city of Can Tho in the south.

Vietnam has hydrocarbon reserves, but still lacks a refinery that is operational and has to import all its refined products.

The company has advanced plans to build another bio-factory in Binh Dinh province located in the centre of the country that will be capable of putting out up to 100,000 cubic metres of bio-fuel.

The country of 86 million people each year uses between 12 and 14 million tonnes of different types of fuels, and domestic demand should grow by 10 to 15% per year, according to PetroVietnam