The fuel, which comes in the form of compressed nuggets, does not produce any toxic gas yet is 30 percent more efficient than briquettes made from rice husks alone, the HCMC Department of Science and Technology said on Tuesday.

Testing at the Phuoc Dat Company’s plant for drying dyed cloth in Hoc Mon District determined that only 20 kilograms of the fuel was needed to start a strong fire and keep it at the required temperature for 15-20 minutes.

Using husk-only briquettes, it should need 100-150 kilograms of fuel to keep the fire going for one hour, the plant’s manager said.

However, since it’s hard to keep the temperature stable, the workers put a further 60 kilograms into the furnace every 30 minutes, he said.

According to the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3, the new fuel’s calorific value - the amount of heat released by the combustion of a mass of fuel - is 1.5 times higher than that of husk briquettes.

Nguyen Vinh Khanh, who invented the fuel in collaboration with his colleague Hoang Minh Nam, expects it to replace coal thanks to the cost-savings and the environmental benefits.

The new fuel is also a solution to the city’s big problem with waste plastic, which accounts for 2-8 percent of the 6,000 and 6,500 tons of waste generated each day and is mostly unrecyclable, he said.

According to Khanh, the world has been introduced to fuels made from plastic in combination with inflammable materials like wood and paper as fuel alternatives and solutions to environmental concerns.

VietNamNet/TN