Located in the district of Yen Thanh, Nghe An, Yen Thanh Tapioca Plant, directly under Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation in Nghe An, was established in 2003. During the past six years, the factory has always faced many problems of power consumption, emissions, waste water and environment pollution.

To reduce costs by saving energy and contribute to environment protection, since September 2008, the factory has implemented cleaner production and proposed 22 cleaner production solutions including 17 internal management solutions, two equipment changing solutions, three circulating reuse solutions. Until now, the factory has applied 15 out of 22 solutions with the total investment of VND9.8 billion.

Starting with the lighting systems, the Board of Management has replaced 40W bulbs with 36W bulbs. Some positions using 300W high-pressure bulbs are also switched to 40W neon lights, which has decreased power consumption by 1%, equivalent to 152 kWh per ton of product (equivalent to VND0.126 million per day). The factory has gradually replaced light bulbs with energy saving bulbs. Thus, annually, the plants has saved about VND20 million. Benefits after applying cleaner production include saving 2kWh per ton of product, equivalent to VND20 million per year, reducing 13,140 tons of CO2 emissions.

The total water consumption is 1200 m3 per day and the amount of waste water is estimated to be 900 - 1000 m3 per day. The balance is the residue and water evaporates in the drying process. To avoid wasting water, the company has installed water meters at production locations, tested and repaired leaking locations of water pipes to avoid tank overflow, increased the water pressure in the cleaning equipment process to make the washing process effective and water-saving.

In the drying stage, the consumption norm per ton of product is 49.3 tons of FO oil, which is higher than enterprises with similar production (45-48 kg per ton of product). To fix this, leaders have inspected the heat exchanging system in the furnace: the dust sticks to heat exchanging tubes, heat exchanging tubes are broken; and at the same time, tested the process of operating incinerators: air for combustion, how the workers operate the oven. The factory has installed the heat exchanging system to make full use of exhaust heat for other purposes, checked and maintained furnaces, and improved furnaces to increase heat transfer efficiency.

One of the most critical measures that have been implemented is utilizing cassava peel and waste pulp as fertilizer to supply to material areas and the market. This solution has used the complete technology of Fitohoomon Fertilizer Joint Stock Company. After applying this technology, the plant has thoroughly handled the existing solid waste, prevented waste water from seeping into underground water and flowing to channels. The total investment for this solution is about VND2.8 billion, the economic benefit gained per year is about VND1.7 billion.

The second most important solution is the installation of residue separating equipment with the drying system to reduce moisture content in the residue used for processing animal feed. Fresh residues are often sold to households and farms as cattle feed. The solution has used water separation and residue drying technology by fluidization method, which has reduced water leakage from the process of packing and shipping, thereby, limited the pollution of groundwater as well as harm to plants. The factory has invested nearly VND3.2 billion in this solution and gained about VND1.5 billion per year.

The company has rationalized the production process to prevent workers from contacting high temperature environments, maintained the heat for heating equipment, regularly repaired leak locations, inspected and maintained heat exchanging tubes in the furnace.

By Minh Duc