Seaweed-Based Ethanol Technology Gets Boost in Vietnam
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Bio-Refinery Begins Operations Turning Co-Cropping into Fuels, Chemicals
Deep in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam a small bio-refinery is converting seaweed into protein, fuel-blendable alcohol, and a bacterial soil product. It is part of a bio-economy demonstration that is also enhancing shrimp quality and yield by co-cropping naturally-occurring aquatic plants as a bio-chemical feedstock.
The project is a collaboration between the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB) and Algen Sustainables. It was funded in part by grants from the governments of Denmark and Netherlands with additional research support from labs in the USA and China.
… The project team began teaching the farmers how to manage the seaweed as a crop, including thinning it when appropriate to maintain rapid but controlled growth. The excess seaweed is now collected by the farmer, dried, and used to make industrial products.
According to Dr. Hoang Nghia Son, Director of ITB, the project highlights the quality and flexibility of research capability in Vietnam. “We are developing entirely new industrial biomass sources, and finding sustainable uses for material others consider waste. Farmers participating in our pilot are enthusiastic about the potential.”
…The conversion facility itself is in a standard shipping container that can be moved near biomass sources of interest. It has a rotary tumbler, primary 200 litre fermenter, secondary inoculum fermenter, centrifuge, and two distillation columns. A small amount of electricity from the local grid is used to drive pumps. The heat source for hydrolysis, fermentation, and distillation is a low-emission rice husk boiler, supplemented by a roof-mounted solar water heater. Gravity feed is used to move material down the conversion pathway. Freshwater is recycled, and non-toxic waste water is treated in a shallow pond before release into the environment. Carbon Dioxide from fermentation can be captured and bottled for sale as a co-product. READ MORE and MORE (Viet Nam News) and MORE (BioBased Digest)
