Waste to fuel : Green Fuels Research wins funding for aquaculture waste-to-power generation project in Vietnam

The project will address all three areas of the energy trilemma (affordable and available, green and clean, secure and reliable) through design of a process and facility for converting fishery waste to sustainable, low cost, net zero carbon diesel generator fuel which can be used within existing infrastructure to provide secure energy supply to fish farms.

Although grid connectivity in Vietnam is relatively high, the country’s aquaculture sector, with farms frequently located in remote areas, is heavily reliant on fossil diesel generators.

Among the project’s expected outcomes will be assembly of a demonstration plant, development of a commercially viable business plan and value chain for future commercialisation and opportunities for industry and community engagement. A further outcome will be a detailed life-cycle analysis to demonstrate clearly the overall CO2eq savings in comparison with the current state-of-the-art.

Launching the project, the Green Fuels group’s Chief Strategy Officer Paul Hilditch said. “We are genuinely excited that PoWGEN will focus on Vietnam, the world’s fourth largest aquaculture producer at 6.4 million tonnes per annum. The sector there has grown exponentially at 20% annually over the last decade. Based on a 20% average fish mortality rate, some 400,000 tonnes of energy-rich pangasius waste material is potentially available every year, itself increasing at an annual rate of 20%. As feedstock is the life blood of any biofuels operation, we are confident that this project can have a dramatic impact on decarbonisation of power generation in the region.”