Vietnam to Recycle Waste Rubber into Industrial Oil Soon
The Vietnam Institute for Building Materials under the Ministry of Construction has recently succeeded in a project to recycle waster rubber into industrial oil, the Kinh Te Viet Nam & The Gioi newspaper reported on June 6. The project used initial raw materials including waste tyre and tube of bikes, motorbikes and autos to recycle into industrial oil, said Dr. Mai Ngoc Tam, one of the research group. Tam said one kilogram of rubber worth VND1,500 ($0.09) is estimated to be converted to 0.4 tael of oil priced at VND5,000 ($0.31) per liter, adding that heat from pyrolytic oil of 10Kcal/kg is much higher than that from both diesel oil (DO) and fuel oil (FO). According to the Vietnam Institute of Tropical Technology and Environment Protection (VITTEP), emissions of the pyrolytic oil will not cause air pollution. Saigon Environment, Energy Technology Joint Stock Company is now producing pyrolytic oil by a production line using 200 kg of waste rubber/hour. Vietnam is also preparing for bio-diesel oil production from sesame in order to substitute imported diesel oil (DO), which is becoming scarce. Without major oil refineries, Vietnam now has to import almost all of petroleum products. The first oil refinery Dung Quat is under construction in central Quang Ngai province with expected operation in February of 2009. The country is forecast to import $4.85 billion worth of 5.83 million metric tons of petroleum products in the first five months of 2008, up 68.7% on year and 6.2%, respectively, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said. (Vietnam & World Economy Jun 6 p5)
