Intimex Thanh Chuong Tapioca Factory, under Nghe An Intimex branch, was put into operation in 2004. The factory has increased the capacity twice: from 60 to 120 tons per day and from 120 to 180 tons per day.

Its coal consumption and the rate of raw cassava over cassava products used to be much higher compared to other factories in Vietnam which have similar scale. Consumption of the company in 2008: 3.7 million kWh of electricity per year; 2.8 million kilograms of coal; 27,000 kilograms of diesel oil. After joining the Component of Cleaner Production in industry of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, leaders of the company has made several concrete measures in energy efficiency.

In 2006, the plant used entirely FO oil for the heating process with the norm of 39.766 kilograms per ton of product. In the first five months of 2007, the company used FO oil with the norm of 44.84 kilograms per ton of product; in the next 4 months, entirely used coal with the norm of 140.013 kilograms per ton of product. In 2008, the plant entirely used coal for the heat exchange process; the coal consumption norm was 133.45 kilograms per ton of product. To overcome the heat waste, the company has prepared the cover system to prevent the rain from damping coals and causing loss of volatile, selected coals which have uniform size and reduced the impurities contained in coals, which has helped the company save hundreds of millions of dong.

Coal slags account for a relatively large amount (135 tons per year) and they contain coals which have not been completely burned (about 20% in the slag). This waste is caused by operators, or because coal quality is low and especially, the furnace design is inconsistent with production. To overcome this situation, the plant has improved the furnace to increase the burning capacity to save fuel.

In the past, the company used low efficiency T10 - 40W fluorescent lights with common iron ballasts which caused great line losses. The company has switched to T8 - 36W tube lights (the brightness is 20% higher than T10), equivalent to saving 19.2 kWh per day.

Some electrical contact positions are inappropriate which has caused dephasing leading to waste of power and combustible engine. To overcome this situation, the company has replaced and tightened slack belts in engines and electrical contact positions to avoid the ignition which causes loss of power and burns engines. The company has trained workers to turn off the lights when not in use. In addition, the company has also installed natural lighting panels in the roof to utilize the light and save electricity.

The waste water treatment system of the plant operating under the biolake technology accounts for a relatively large area (about 10 ha). Company's waste water is 1400 m3 per day. The company is currently investing in treatment equipment under UASB technology recovering biogas with the following advantages: not accounting for a large area (accounting for 1/10 of the area of the old system), reducing greenhouse emissions, recovering biogas to replace coal for drying.

The company has signed a contract with EAS (an environment company of the United States) to build a waste water treatment system recovering biogas under the clean development mechanism. The construction of UASB technology recovering gas can avoid biogas leakage. This amount of gas can replace all coals (equivalent to savings of about VND4 billion per year). This year, this project will start operating.

The company has set a target of building a waste water treatment system to ensure that waste water will meet the standards; reducing 100% of leakage (water, dust, flour) in intermediate stages of the production process; reducing 10% of coal consumption, 5% of power consumption; reusing waste shell, pulp and residue as fertilizer; optimizing the washing process to save water; controlling as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of measures to minimize environmental pollution.

By Minh Duc