FIRM TO MAKE BIOFUEL FROM CATFISH

A Vietnamese company called Agifish plans to convert the fat of catfish into biofuel, which will be used domestically in diesel engines. Ho Xuan Thien, the chief engineer of the project, planned to build a 10,000-tonne-per-year factory in 2007 to mass produce the fuel for domestic markets. Thien said a kilogramme of catfish fat could produce 1.13 litres of biofuel. The whiskered fish has already used the fuel to run pumps in its fish farms. Vietnam planned to produce about 500,000 tonnes of catfish this year and 700,000 tonnes in 2007, mostly for export to the United States and Europe, Mr Thien said. Vietnam has major offshore oil and gas reserves but lacks refineries, making it reliant on petroleum imports and vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations.

Andrea
05/07/2006