Outlaw
7th July 2006, 09:44 AM
July 04, 2006
Catfish fat to make engines purr
From: Agence France-Presse
A VIETNAMESE company planned to turn catfish fat into biofuel to run diesel engines, with industrial-scale production to start next year, a company official said today
Catfish exporter Agifish said it had won government approval to build a factory in the southern Mekong delta province of An Giang in 2007 and produce about 10 million litres of the fuel per year.
"We have carried out tests since 2004 in laboratories in Ho Chi Minh City, and they have shown that the catfish biofuel is very good," said Ho Xuan Thien, chief engineer of the company's technical department.
"We have received the green light from the government to commercialise the fuel from 2007 and build a plant to process 10,000 tonnes of catfish a year. The fuel will be used for diesel engines in the domestic market."
Mr Thien said the company had found a way to make about one litre of biofuel from 1kg of fat and oil from the whiskered fish and had already used the fuel to run pumps in its fish farms.
Vietnam planned to produce about 500,000 tonnes of catfish this year and 700,000 tonnes in 2007, mostly for export to the United States and Europe, Mr Thien said.
With 8.4 per cent economic growth last year, Vietnam has major offshore oil and gas reserves but lacks refineries, making it reliant on petroleum imports and vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations.
Catfish fat to make engines purr
From: Agence France-Presse
A VIETNAMESE company planned to turn catfish fat into biofuel to run diesel engines, with industrial-scale production to start next year, a company official said today
Catfish exporter Agifish said it had won government approval to build a factory in the southern Mekong delta province of An Giang in 2007 and produce about 10 million litres of the fuel per year.
"We have carried out tests since 2004 in laboratories in Ho Chi Minh City, and they have shown that the catfish biofuel is very good," said Ho Xuan Thien, chief engineer of the company's technical department.
"We have received the green light from the government to commercialise the fuel from 2007 and build a plant to process 10,000 tonnes of catfish a year. The fuel will be used for diesel engines in the domestic market."
Mr Thien said the company had found a way to make about one litre of biofuel from 1kg of fat and oil from the whiskered fish and had already used the fuel to run pumps in its fish farms.
Vietnam planned to produce about 500,000 tonnes of catfish this year and 700,000 tonnes in 2007, mostly for export to the United States and Europe, Mr Thien said.
With 8.4 per cent economic growth last year, Vietnam has major offshore oil and gas reserves but lacks refineries, making it reliant on petroleum imports and vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations.