Business Development of Solid Waste Treatment Technology and Bio-Fertilizer Production through a Danish-Vietnamese Partnership

This paper narrates the process and outcome of the business development maturation phase of a partnership between Danish and Vietnamese businesses in the waste management sector that began in early 2011 and is ongoing. The partnership has been initially facilitated by a university-based support organization called access2innovation and has had the close cooperation of an international development NGO, SustainableEnergy, throughout all stages in the process. In addition to seed funding from access2innovation, the partnership has
received funding from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affair’s development cooperation agency Danida, through its Danida Business Partnerships private sector support facility. From an access2innovation action researcher’s perspective, the business development process is seen through a
socio-technical theoretical lens emphasizing how innovation management in partnerships is brought forward through socially and culturally embedded negotiations among its actors, shaping the technology in question.
Additionally, the business development process is seen in an institutional perspective, demonstrating how Danish technology transferal is capable of being adapted to the Vietnamese physical, legislative and market context. The
findings are useful for researchers and practitioners within the waste sector in Southeast Asian countries. The partnership’s business concept deals with the proposed introduction of improved Danish solid waste separation and treatment technology at a plant in one of the outlying suburbs of the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi, which is dimensioned to be able to treat 30,000 tons municipal solid waste per year. The technology in question involves the highly refined separation of the organic waste fraction into so-called bio-pulp, which only has a 0,01% content of plastic, metals and glass. Bio-pulp production enables the production of derived products such as high-quality bio-fertilizer, and is suitable for biogas-based electricity production. However, the technology is capital-intensive and requires conducive policies and subsidies as well as a robust bio-fertilizer market to be financially sustainable.