As the country advances its ambitions of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, TA Vital identified a major opportunity to help push the sustainable development in the country.
The opportunity came when it partnered with the CHITOSE Group, a Japanese biotechnology company to transform waste sludge into a nutrient-rich compost for agriculture use.
Using CHITOSE’s industrial compost barrel and exclusive bio-flora, the sludge undergoes a controlled fermentation process where the microbial community neutralises harmful elements and accelerates decomposition.
Industrial sludge is a problematic waste product that can only be burnt or buried with an undesirable impact on people and planet.
CHITOSE’s technology can convert about 80% of the sludge into agricultural compost, closing the loop to create value for both agriculture and industry.
What’s more, the compost barrel integrates AI-driven monitoring that tracks factors such as temperature, moisture, and microbial activity in real time. This helps to guarantee consistency.
At the same time, the compost produced can be aligned with the nutrient profile required by different crops, ultimately boosting yield and quality.
“This unique operational framework developed by Chitose allows them to customise the quality of compost to fit certain agricultural crops that requires certain nutrients… For instance, dragon fruit might require certain nutrients, and the compost barrel can help us to bring out those particular nutrients required by the tree itself to increase the yields,” explained TA Vital CTO Minh Le.
TA Vital was founded as a micro-algae health product & research company that recently established a division dedicated to environmental, social, and governance (ESG).
“We set ourselves a mission as a company to make a life worth living… At first, we defined living a life worth living as having all the health products to make us more resilient to environmental threats… But over time, we realised that life worth living isn’t just about taking supplements and reacting to environmental challenges. We also need solutions that create a broader impact—not only for people living in this environment, but for the environment itself,” Le told AgTechNavigator.
A circular vision
TA Vital and CHITOSE have set up a treatment facility at one of the first eco-industrial parks being developed in Vietnam, Prodezi Industrial Park.
According to CEO Thanh Nguyen, the companies expect the facility to be operational by the end of this year. The testing phase is expected to take three to six months.
Given mixed and unpredictable sludge quality, the compost at this stage will be used for landscaping within the industrial park.
“The challenge is that sludge from these parks comes from many different industries, so its content varies a lot. That’s why the first phase of this project is so important—it’s all about testing. We need about three to six months to test the soil, the sludge, and the final product. With such varied sludge quality, the initial compost will be used only for landscaping trees,” said Nguyen.
In the future, the goal is to work with individual factories, specifically those with organic waste such as food by-products.
“Down the line, we hope to work directly with individual factories. That way, we know exactly what their sludge contains, and by focusing on organic waste from a single source, we’re confident we can produce high-quality agricultural compost that is safe to use for food-bearing crops,” said Nguyen.
While the company now imports the machines from Japan where it is produced by CHITOSE, Nguyen said it hopes to bring the manufacturing to Vietnam in the future.