Vietnam needs more biofuel plantations

Vietnam needs to expand the cultivation of biofuel plants in order to produce enough biofuel to meet five percent of its annual energy needs by 2020. Do Huy Dinh, a member of the National Science and Technology Policy Council, said that Vietnam will focus on developing crops that provide biofuels such as sugarcane, cassava, sweet kaoliang, and jatropha, to ensure enough materials or feedstock from 2010 to 2025. According to Dinh, sugarcane has the potential to produce between 5,000 and 7,000 liters of alcohol per hectare per year. Therefore, to produce 0.5 billion liters of alcohol from sugarcane by 2020 for biofuels, Vietnam needs to expand its sugarcane-growing areas by 200,000 hectares and grow high-yielding varieties to produce 30 million tons of sugarcane a year. The current sugarcane acreage is around 300,000 hectares, which produce 17 million tons a year. At present, four of the country’s 37 sugar refineries produce 30 million of liters of alcohol a year. (January 26, 2010)