PetroVietnam plans bioethanol project

State-owned PetroVietnam is planning a bioethanol project at its 6.5 million metric ton per year Dung Quat refining complex in Quang Ngai province for blending with gasoline produced from the plant, a senior official at the company’s R&D arm said. The project is expected to have a capacity to produce 100 million liters per year of ethanol from 220,000 metric tons per year of cassava feedstock, said Phan Minh Quoc Binh, director of PetroVietnam’s R&D center. The ethanol will be blended with gasoline produced from the Dung Quat refinery, which will also help raise the product’s research octane number (RON) from the current 92, Phan said. (October 16, 2009)