Bargasse based electricity a possibility

HÀ NỘI — Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) hopes to set up power plants that run on sugarcane by-products.

Phạm Quốc Doanh, VSSA’s Chairman, said at the fifth annual International Sugarcane Conference that Việt Nam’s 41 sugar factories annually produced up to 4.5 million tonnes of bagasses, the fibrous remains after the juice is extracted from the cane. He said this could generate up to 1.4 billion kilowatts of electricity per year.

By 2020, Việt Nam will have produced about 20 million tonnes of sugarcane which could produce 2,400 megawatts of electricity.

Doanh said that if Việt Nam could manage to process these sugar by-products, they should eventually produce 10 per cent of the national electricity turnover. Countries within the Asia Pacific region, such as Brazil, Thailand or the Philippines, have successfully used bagasse to generate electricity. 

Electricity generated by bagasse is a clean alternative source which lessens dependence on thermal power or fossil fuels and help reduce hydro power plant production during the dry season.

Phạm Hồng Dương, Chairman of TTC Biên Hòa Sugar Corporation, told the conference that the price difference between bagasse based electricity in Việt Nam and Thailand and the Philippines was the main reason why not many power plants have invested in this form of energy.

According to Dương, the current price for each kilowatt of electricity generated by bagasse in Việt Nam is roughly $0.05, while the same amount costs $0.11 and $0.13 in the Philippines.

The conference, held in Phan Thiết City, was co-organised by the VSSA and TTC Group. — VNS