Biomass Town Plan:
Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.1 Basic information on Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City
 Basic information on Cu Chi District is as follows.
Cu Chi District
Downtown Ho Chi Minh City
Target area
Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City
Population
350,000
Area
434.96 km2
Local
characteristics
 Agricultural district located in the
vicinity of downtown Ho Chi Ming
City.
 Agricultural land constitutes
approximately 77% of total land
area.
Major industries
 Livestock farming
 Manufacturing
Major biomass
 Livestock waste
 Rice straw
 Household food waste
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.2 Organizing the planning body
 Ho Chi Minh City government, Cu Chi District People’s Committee, Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology are core members to formulate the Biomass Town Plan.
 The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the central government participated to
share information.
Background of organizing the planning body
Local Committee
Local Government
Central Government
Ho Chi Minh City
Ministry of Agriculture
All related parties shared the desire to revitalize the region
and improve the environment through biomass utilization.
Each party’s incentive to participate was as follows.

Ho Chi Minh City:
Needed to address water pollution caused by livestock
waste discharged into rivers.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development:
Interested renewable energy project utilizing unused
biomass to address problem of shortage of electricity
and energy in rural areas

Cu Chi District People’s Committee:
As national policy promoted livestock expansion, the
Committee was feeling need to introduce centralized
livestock waste treatment system, rather than system
collected and treated by individual farmers..

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology:
The university was researching utilization technologies
for livestock waste and was able to provide its know-how
and expertise.
and Rural Development
University/Research
Ho Chi Minh City
Institutions
University of Technology
Involved parties in
Cu Chi District
the community
People’s Committee
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.3 Regional situations and issues
 Soil and water pollutions caused by discharge of untreated livestock waste to the land and
rivers were major issue in Cu Chi District. The need to appropriately treat the livestock waste
was high.
 Energy and electricity shortages were other big issue in the district, and the district desired to
utilize biomass to generate renewable energy.
Regional Issues
 Environmental issues such as soil
and water pollution caused by
livestock waste discharged to the
land and rivers.
 Shortage of energy and electricity in
the district.
Regional needs to solve issues by
utilizing biomass
 Effective utilization of large amount of
manure and others.
 Establishing biomass utilization
system to treat all livestock waste
generated in the district.
 Promoting renewable energy
production utilizing biomass
generated in the region.
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.4 Available amount and utilization status of major biomass
 The amount of major utilizable biomass and state of utilization in the Cu Chi District are as
below. Livestock waste, household waste, rice straw and other waste are abundant, and
some portion of them is utilized to produce compost and livestock feed.
Category
of biomass
Waste
Type
Livestock waste
438,151 Fermentation,
Recycled/treated
products
Compost, biogas, liquid fertilizer
Amount of
utilization
(tonnes/year)
Utilization
ratio (%)
60
11,200
80
ND
ND
Domestic disposal/incineration, landfill
894
2
197 Reuse
Livestock feed
138
70
Non-edible parts of
farming crops
10,610 Reuse
Livestock feed
8,488
80
Rice husks
10,475 Reuse
Livestock feed, mixing with soil
5,237
50
Rice straw
13,808 Incineration,
Reuse
livestock feed,
12,427
90
ND
ND
gas production
Sewage sludge
Lumber and bamboo
residue
Municipal waste
Food waste
Forestry waste
Energy
crops
Conversion/
treatment
methods
262,890
biomass
Unused
biomass
Available
biomass
(tones/year)
Sugar cane
14,000 Fermentation
ND Reuse
Compost
Mushroom cultivation beds,
cooking fuel
44,713 Reuse
ND Reuse
incinerated ash compost
Cooking fuel
9,362 Reuse
Livestock feed
7,490
80
Corn
308 Reuse
Livestock feed
231
75
Peanuts
288 Reuse
Livestock feed, mulching material
216
75
ND = No data
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.5 State of existing biomass facilities
 The main methods of biomass utilization in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City are compost, biogas
production, and livestock feed production.
 Two types of biomass utilization facilities are under operation: composting and bio-digestion.
 In addition, research facilities for biodiesel fuel (BDF) production from cooking oil waste and ethanol
production from rice straw exist.
Research phase
Practical use
Vermiculture and composting facility
BDF facility
 Cattle waste of some farms is used to
cultivate earthworms.
 The BDF facility utilizes cooking oil waste.
 Capacity: 2 tones/day.
 Cu Chi District has approximately 9
hectares of worm farms consuming 30,000
tones of cattle waste to cultivate 985 tones
of earthworms every year.
 Earthworm waste is high-quality fertilizer,
and the worms are used as feed for shrimp
farming.
BDF facility
Culturing
Bed
Bio-digester facility
 Bio-digesters were introduced to treat cattle
manure on small farms.
 The generated biogas is used for power
generation and cooking fuel.
 A typical bio-digester in Cu Chi District is
from 5m3 and 8m3 in volume.
Bio-digester
Ethanol facility
 The facility was installed by the Science
and Technology Research Partnership for
Sustainable Development, that is a
collaborative work between the Japan
Science and Technology Agency (JST) and
the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA).
 A pilot-scale bioethanol production plant
using rice straw at the Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology was installed and
the University continues to research.
Ethanol
facility
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.6 Objectives of the Plan
 The major objectives of the Biomass Town Plan in Cu Chi District are to reduce
environmental burden, establish recycling-based society, and revitalize the local economy.
 Establishment recycling-based society and reducing environmental burden
– Sustainably develop agricultural and livestock farming.
– Establishing recycling-based society by promoting the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle).
– Promoting biomass-derived renewable energy.
– Reducing environmental pollution caused by livestock farming.
 Revitalizing the local economy
– Improving income in the local community.
– Creating new employment.
– Providing highly-value added biomass products by reuse and recycling of waste.
– Providing hygienic and healthy farm products and livestock products to the market.
– Developing an international support framework and invite investment to implement the Biomass
Town
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.7 Basic policies for biomass utilization
 Cu Chi District’s Biomass Town Plan aims to promote sustainable biomass utilization,
improve hygienic conditions, and produce renewable energy through the introduction of
advanced biomass utilization technologies and the dissemination of existing technologies.
B io m as s T own C on c ep t Im ag e in C u C h i D is tric t, H C M C ity
B iom as s c onvers ion
Ener gy Cr op
Energy CropC orn
pea nut
(corn, peanut)
Ri ce
R ic e
Cultivation
CulRice
t i vat
i ons tra w
(rice straw)
P roduc e
A dva nc ed tec hnolog y
E thanol pla nt
L oc a l/medium tec hnolog y
Mus hroom
farmers
B iofuel
B io
E thanol
ma rket
Mus hroom
C hlorella
Li vest
ock A nimal
Livestock
dis c ha rg e
(animal discharge)
Veget abl e,V eg eta l
Vegetable horticulture
hor t i cul t res
ur eidue
(vegetable residue)
A lonog ica l
biotec hnolog y
G a s ific ation
by biolog ic a l
reaction
C ompos t pla nt
res idue
(woody residue)
Wood s olid
fuel
A nima l feed
G a s /energ y/
electric ity
L iquid
org a nic
fertiliz er
E a rth
worm
O rg a nic
c ompos t
For est r y Woody
Forestry
utilis ation
Woody
pellet
F ertiliz er/field mixing
O rna menta l plant
H ous eholds /E V N
EVN; Electricity of
Vietnam
Link needed to be established or strengthened
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.8 Overview of each basic policy
 The following projects of Cu Chi District’s Biomass Town Plan were planed.
 New approaches were methane gas production from livestock and other waste, and
biodiesel fuel production from energy crops.
Project
Target biomass
Overview
Methane production from
livestock waste and
agricultural residue
Livestock waste, Construct new utilization system using biogas as energy, and
households food digestive liquid as liquid fertilizer
waste
Vermicomposting from
livestock waste and
household waste
Livestock waste, Produce vermicompost by leveraging the already present
households food vermiculture industry, and popularize its use over a wider area.
waste
Mushroom cultivation
using rice straw and
sawdust
Rice straw,
sawdust
Expand the usage of rice straw and sawdust as mushroom
cultivation beds, the business activity was already done in Cu Chi
District.
Wood pellet production
from woody residue
Sawdust
Construct new utilization system through processing unused
sawdust into pellets for fuel.
Biofuel production using
energy crops and rice
straw
Energy crops
(corn, peanuts,
etc.), rice straw
Produce bioethanol using energy crops under the support of Japan
International Cooperation (JICA) and the Japan Science and
Technology Agency (JST). It is expected to serve as a model for
recycling in rural region.
Chlorella production using Livestock urine
livestock waste
components (urine)
Use urine from pig farms and solar energy are used to cultivate
chlorella consumed for livestock feed.
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Part 3: Biomass Town Plans Supported by MAFF in Four ASEAN Countries
3.3 Biomass Town Plan: Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3.3.9 Future challenges
 The local committee, based on the experience at Cu Chi District, is considering to establish a
promotional organization for Biomass Town, expand pilot areas to other regions, and
implement promotion and dissemination activities.
 Presenting some activities in Cu Chi Districts at workshops and meetings.
– Presenting the activities related to Biomass Town Plan in Cu Chi District at biomass-related
workshops and meetings to secure funding for the implementation of the Plan, and to expand
similar activities in other regions.
 Formulating Biomass Town Plan in regions with different characteristics.
– Developing pilot Plans in other regions with different social economical and agricultural
characteristics from Cu Chi District.
 Establishing a Biomass Town promotional organization within the central government
– Clarifying each role of the relevant ministries and establishing a promotional organization for
Biomass Towns within the central government, since national policies have not been decided due
to the unclear involvement of several ministries in biomass policies, including the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Science and Technology, etc.
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