Recently, the Branch of Standardization and Quality - Hai Duong’s Department of Science and Technology has organized a workshop on the demonstration projects on economical and efficient use of energy in the province of Hai Duong. The workshop was held in order to evaluate the effectiveness of energy saving methods used in two demo companies in 2009.

Attending the workshop were leaders and officials representing the Department of Science and Technology; representatives from 2 enterprises involved the 2009 demo project, representatives of Women's Union in Hai Duong, leaders and officials from the Center of advanced scientific application; the Steering Committee of Project called "Economical and efficient use of energy in the province of Hai Duong for the period of 2009 - 2013."

At the workshop, after paying visits to the two enterprises which had participated in the demo project in 2009 and achieved high performance, namely Hong Duong Ltd. Company and Hoan Cau Technical Rubber Ltd. Company, the representatives analyzed and assessed the results of the two enterprises when using energy efficiency methods as follows:

Hoan Cau Technical Rubber Ltd. Company is a technical enterprise specialized in producing various rubber products. The company uses electricity from the national grid and coal for operating equipment in the production line such as the sulphurization system, lighting system, and for running generators. It uses boilers to supply heat for the drying system of raw tire material, a process in tire cover production. Thus, the lack of good management measures would result in a waste of energy in the production process of the Company.

Facing with a condition of energy misuse, the company’s managers decided to invest on a tire drying system using solar power to replace the boilers. The solution has saved a large amount of energy. The annual consumption of coal for the phase of drying tire used to be 108 tons per year, requiring three workers to operate the boiler; now using solar power system, the amount of coal consumption fell to 50 tons per year and no worker is needed. After one year participating in the demo project, the company has saved VND62,594 million per year, while the investment cost were only VND120 million, the period of payback is very short (only 8, 9 months).

Hong Duong Ltd. Company is an enterprise specializing in producing and processing agricultural products, foodstuffs, various salt types. The production facilities used power from national grid to operate equipment in the production line such as preliminary salt processing system (sanitation, stirring, washing, etc), lighting system, engines operation and use coal furnace to provide heat for salt drying system and drying system of agricultural products.

In 2009, the Company replaced its current salt drying line (mostly using coal and electricity to operate) with a new one (using fluidized principle) with a capacity 2.5 times greater than the old one’s. Besides, it also utilized a portion of the heat exhausts to reuse in another line for drying agricultural products. After a year of implementation, the new production line has helped save more than VND758.64 million. Total investment was just VND2.22 billion. Therefore the capital recovery period of this solution was 34.8 months. In addition, with new production line, product quality has been improved, ensuring food hygiene and safety, and thus increasing the company’s competitiveness on domestic and foreign markets.

In short, the two companies, both encountering the energy wastage issues, have implemented energy efficiency methods: Hong Duong Ltd. Company has upgraded to a new salt drying-room, while Hong Duong Ltd. Company chose to use a solar power tire drier. Both methods are simple yet effective and have helped these enterprises save a great amount of energy expenses and improve the environment as well as ensure safety for workers.

By Nguyen An