Aware of the importance of biofuel development, on November 20th 2007, the Government of Vietnam approved of “Biofuel development project for 2015, vision for 2025”. The primary purpose of a biofuel development project is to replace part of traditional fossil fuel, contributing to national energy security and environment preservation.

The project also proposes actions of government offices and other businesses in order to build a pathway to biofuel usage, establish the related legal framework and policies to encourage biofuel production, construct an experimental model of biofuel production and distribution, as well as other investment projects of the government on biofuel development until 2025.

Why biofuel?

The discovery of mineral oil marked a great turning point in mankind history. The discovery, however, has also created some insoluble problems arising from the exploitation process and use of mineral oil. One of the most controversial issues so far is air pollution caused by smoke from fuel burning.

Exhausted fumes produced from activities involving oil and fossil fuel products account for about 70% of the total emissions over the world. Every year, there are about 25 billion tons of toxic gas and greenhouse gas emitted into the earth’s atmosphere, 30% more than that of the pre-industry period (from 280 ppm to 360 ppm), causing the earth’s temperature to rise from 0.2 to 0.4 degree Celsius. Unless there is an active solution, until 2050 the concentration of green house gas may grow to 400 ppm, which together with harmful effects of toxic gas will trigger immeasurable consequences on living environment.

Biofuel compared to mineral oils, on the other hand, will help reduce about 70% of carbon dioxide and about 30% of toxic gas emissions. At the same time, biofuel contains a very small amount of sulfur and 11% of oxygen so burning biofuel is much cleaner. Biofuel also has short biological decomposing period, thus reduces water and land pollution.

Biofuel – the inevitable trend of sustainable development 

About 50 countries in the world have started exploiting and using biofuel. Biofuel can be understood as recycled fuel produced from biological material known as biomass. Biofuel consists of clean vegetation ethanol, biological diesel, dimethyl ether (DME), etc. So far there have been about 50 billion liters of ethanol (75% of which are used as fuel) In 2003 the figure was only 38 billion liters; and in 2012 it is estimated to be 80 billion liters.

The USA is currently the largest ethanol producer. In 2006 it produced nearly 19 billion liters, in which 15 billion used as fuel, making up about 3% of petrol market. By 2012, more than 28 billion liters of ethanol and biodiesel are expected to be produced, making up 3.5% of petrol usage.

In China, from 2005 to 2008 the annual growth of ethanol production was 21% and it is expected to rise more quickly year after year. In the early 2003, E10 petrol (consists of 10% of ethanol and 90% of petroleum) was officially put into use in five big cities and is going to be extended into 9 other provinces. India is another country which has quick growth in ethanol production in recent years. The country is expected to make breakthrough steps in the industry in the period of 2009 – 2012.

Thailand has also developed biofuel since 1985 with a project of producing ethanol from sugarcane. From 1985 to 1987, Thailand started a pilot program of using petroleum mixed with ethanol. Ten years later, the story of biofuel temporarily calmed down due to decreasing world price of oil. Then from 1997 to 2000, a research and development project sponsored by JICA (Japan) has again proved the effectiveness of ethanol, so in 2001, a bio-petroleum product (ethanol petroleum) began to be sold throughout the country.

Since 2006, the Thailand petrol market has consumed petroleum consisting of 10% ethanol. When the oil price crises occurred over the world, Thailand switched to use a petroleum with 20% ethanol, and also produced 58.3 million tons of ethanol, 35.7 million of which were exported to Japan and enjoyed a zero percent tax, thanks to a comprehensive partnership agreement. The rest were exported to Singapore, Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan (China). In 2009, the outputs of 13 ethanol factories of Thailand were 1.87 million liters per day. Japanese investors, who were known to be very careful, such as Sumitomo and Mitsubishi invested in every stage, from planting to processing and exporting.

Biofuel potential of Vietnam

In Vietnam, biofuel has been used for a long time, yet only at small scales such as households and small production. This type of biofuel originated from biomass materials such as firewood, straw, rice husks, and dung but is still categorized as crude fuel. Using crude fuel made from biomass for industrial scale is very hard and inefficient because the calorific value of crude fuel is very low (15 to 18 MJ per kilogram for firewood and 12 to 15 MJ per kilogram for rice husk), resulting in dispersed production and supply. In fact, biofuel potential from vegetable oil plants like cassava, corn, pineapple, peanuts, sesame, palm oil, or from cat fish fat, sugar drips (from sugar canes) made into  alcohol mixed with gasoline is relatively high.

There have been a few enterprises in different industries including transportation, seafood and some institutes and universities carrying out research in gasoline mixed with ethanol and biodiesel such as Saigon Petro, Binh Tay Wine Company, Chi Hung Company, AGIFISH Company. Some provinces (An Giang, Can Tho, Long An) also have projects of ethanol production or have invested in building workshops for biodiesel production from cat fish’s fat. A few joint venture companies have signed contracts for planting Jatrophacurcas (palm tree, sesame tree) (imported in the first phase, then invested in local planting in Vietnam). But the projects have not been running due to the lack of a plan for developing raw material production region with advanced farming procedure, as well as official structures and policies to attract investors to raw material regions. At the same time there is a shortage of technicians and scientists specializing in biofuel. In some places, the authorities only called for biofuel research at first, then did not give support to enterprises and other units, making some people distrust in producing and using biofuel.

When enterprises from various economic sectors are searching for a biofuel production model, Petrol Vietnam corporation has taken the lead in the initiation and development of biofuel, starting with the proposal of "Plan and program for biofuel development projects for 2015, vision to 2025".

By Nguyen An