Japan’s Milestone to build ethanol plant in Vietnam

Vietnam’s central highlands province of Dak Lak has turned a green light to Milestone Inc. of Japan to build an ethanol plant with a production capacity of 120 million liters a year, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported. The plant will cost US$60 million to build, the Japanese firm said. Vietnam plans to produce 1.8 million tons of ethanol and vegetable fuel oil by 2025, the equivalent of 5% of the national petroleum demand. The country will put into operation five ethanol plants with a combined capacity of 365,000 tons annually through 2011 to produce 7.3 million tons of E5, a five percent ethanol blend. (September 30, 2009)