State-owned refiner PetroVietnam plans to export around 85% of its fuel-grade ethanol production upon its startup until 2013, when it expects the Vietnamese government to implement a mandate that requires 5% of all gasoline sold in the country to be ethanol-blended, a company source from PetroVietnam Central Biofuels said Tuesday.
PetroVietnam has three fuel ethanol projects in the pipeline. It expects to achieve mechanical completion at its 100 million mt/year Dung Quat fuel-grade ethanol plant, managed by PetroVietnam Central Biofuels, by end September.
According to the source, commissioning works at the cassava-based plant would take around one-and-a-half months, and the company expects to startup commercially in November.
PetroVietnam will also bring on stream another 100 million liter/year fuel ethanol plant, in the northern Phu Tho province, in November. That plant will be managed by another PetroVietnam subsidiary company, PetroVietnam BioChem Joint Stock Company.
The third 100 million liter/year fuel ethanol plant, managed also by a PetroVietnam subsidiary company -- Orient BioFuels Company -- located in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, will be brought online in the second quarter of 2012.
PetroVietnam has started discussions with market participants in Asia, primarily in Singapore and the Philippines, on offtake agreements.
The company plans to export 85% of its production after starting up its ethanol units, with the remaining to be sold in the domestic market. PetroVietnam, however, will reduce the percentage of its exports to 20-30% after 2013, when it expects the Vietnamese government to enforce an E5 mandate, the source said.
At that point, 70-80% of its production would be blended into the gasoline produced at its 130,000 Dung Quat refinery. The refinery currently produces 90, 92 and 95 RON gasoline.
The 100 million liter/year ethanol plant at Dung Quat requires around 250,000 mt/year of cassava as feedstock, or 2,249 kg per one liter of ethanol.
Specifications of its fuel ethanol is similar to the American product, with purity content at 99.8%, methanol content at 0.5% maximum and water content at 0.3% maximum.
PetroVietnam receives around 30% of its cassava requirements from its own plantations in Vietnam, and will import the remaining from Laos, the source said. PetroVietnam also sells some of its cassava chips to China.
