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Inedible vegetable-oil based biodiesel in Northern Viet Nam 197

requirement of the cultivation land for feedstock production of all biodiesel
blends up to B100 (Tables 6.1 and 6.9).
Principally, use of biodiesel systems of all blends led to considerable
reduction in ecological footprint compared with the petrodiesel system.

5.4 Economic evaluation
The estimation of costs and benefits in various biodiesel blend systems was
conducted following the LCC method. Results indicated the highest share
of feedstock cultivation and vegetable oil extraction plant in total capital cost
and annual investment in Ha Noi and Quang Ninh, respectively (Table 6.9
and Fig. 6.3). This situation was mostly due to a considerable amount of oil-
seeds required to fulfill the need for crude vegetable oil used to produce a
certain amount of biodiesel in both areas. Consequently, first-year seed
oil preparation, plant construction and installation as capital costs, and chem-
ical substances used for cultivation and oil extraction as other operating costs
were the highest contributors to the total costs of biodiesel systems. As an
extensive area of feedstock cultivation was required to produce 1tonne of
Hibiscus-Vernicia biodiesel in Ha Noi that ensuring the proper ratio
between the two fuels, the investment in Hibiscus-Vernicia intercropping
was 48% and 80% of the total capital cost and operating cost of the system,
respectively. In Quang Ninh, most of the investment was in oil extraction
stage. Biodiesel production and consumption stages came next in annual
payment for the biodiesel system (Fig. 6.3). On the other hand, a noticeably
high revenue of the biodiesel systems was observed, except for the B5 system
in Quang Ninh (Table 6.9). Biodiesel systems of higher blends and Ha Noi
biodiesel system compared to Quang Ninh system showed higher revenue
and a shorter payback period for all capital costs. This outcome asserted the
economic efficiency of all biodiesel systems. However, although biodiesel
was the main product of this system, it shared only around 5% and 30%
of total system benefits in Ha Noi and Quang Ninh, respectively
(Fig. 6.5). Biodiesel systems in Ha Noi highly depended on several coprod-
ucts, including Hibiscus calyces in the agricultural operation, and glycerin,
sugar, vitamin E, phytosterol, and residue Vernicia oil in the oil extraction
and biodiesel production stages (Fig. 6.5).
Closely examining the profit of biodiesel and its direct coproduct (glyc-
erin) in the production stage, their market prices could cover all spending for
production only in Quang Ninh system. Biodiesel systems in Ha Noi had to
deal with a longer distance of raw material transport and biodiesel