Ethanol is here to stay

Bio-ethanol is driving forward Vietnam’s use of alternative fuels

The Bio-ethanol Thai-Viet Shareholding Company last week received an investment certificate to start construction of a manufacturing complex in the central Ninh Thuan province for ethanol, fertilisers and animal feeds at the local Phuoc Nam Industrial Park.

The VND950 billion ($50 million) project will cover 60 hectares and include office compounds, a research and development (R&D) facility, plant systems and support areas for waste and water treatment.

The plant, when operational by the end of 2012 or early 2013, is expected to provide more than 60 million litres of ethanol each year for domestic consumption and exports to key markets of Europe, Japan, Thailand and Korea.

The licenced facility, which is known as the biggest foreign invested project in Ninh Thuan  during the first eight months of this year, will provide jobs for thousands of local farmers.

Foreign partners comprising EC Chemical Bio Co. Ltd., Brazil’s Planalcool’s Asia Pacific independent partner will design and construct the bio-ethanol facility of Thai-Viet company.

Seventy per cent of the company’s stake is held by foreign partners and the remainder from local partners.

Jindaratana Twiltermsup, the company chairman, said the technology had been prepared for the past 10 years and products such as fertilisers would be used for planting in-put raw materials of the new bio-ethanol plant.

Vietnam’s first foreign invested bio-ethanol plant has been developed by Japan’s Milestone in the Central Highlands’ Daklak province since December last year with the total investment capital of $60 million.

The second is the $81 million bio-ethanol plant invested by Japan’s Itochu Group, Vietnam’s Orient Biofuels, PVOil and Licogi 16 in Binh Phuoc province. 

Construction of Vietnam’s first bio-ethanol plant invested by PetroVietnam started in September 2008 in the northern Phu Tho province, while the group’s Dung Quat factory in the central part will supply 100,000 cubic metres of ethanol per year.

The $80 million project received  funding of around VND1 trillion ($55 million) from PetroVietnam Financial Joint Stock Corporation, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, Ocean Bank and the Lien Viet Bank.

A $60 million engineering-procurement-construction contract to design and provide equipment for the factory was signed in August.