In order to manufacture high quality products which have both domestic and international competitiveness, Catalan JSC has invested in the most modern technological lines and equipment using Robots and automation technologies. In addition, some auxiliary equipment is also imported from countries such as Japan, Britain, America and Belgium. Although the company is growing rapidly and creating a foothold in the market, the actual energy consumption is still high with over VND90 billion per year, including costs for electricity, coal and gas.

As an enterprise producing ceramic tiles, the energy consumption of Catalan JSC always accounts for a large amount of expenses in annual revenue. Due to the problem of fuel prices, the company has recognized the importance of reducing energy consumption. Therefore, it has not only built its own orderly management apparatus, skillful workers and high-tech imported production lines, but also conducted energy audit to find opportunities to radically reduce costs.

Mr. Hoang Van Phi, head of the energy audit team, Electrical testing center, said "After inspecting, measuring and analyzing data, we have found five saving solutions for the company including solutions which can be applied immediately due to low costs and solutions which require large investment. The saving potential of those solutions is over 5,000 kwh per year and about 630 tons of fuel, equivalent to approximately VND5 billion with the payback period of more than one year."

Only by placing hole drilled troughs on cooling tanks to make water flow like rain to reduce the temperature of the water, the company has saved more than VND27 million per year. Also at the area of cooling tanks, at the time of production, the temperature of water from the rain irrigation system is 38oC. The installation of two more rain irrigation systems is expected to reduce the temperature by 2oC. This solution requires the investment of VND200 million and can save approximately VND127 million annually.

Especially, a solution which requires high investment costs but has huge saving potential is installing fired grade coal furnaces and spray drying towers to utilize fired coals. According to the energy audit team, when the coal gas producer is operating, a large amount of coal slag is discharged. The good part of these fired coals can be extracted and mixed with coal dust  with the proportion of 5% to supply for the fired grade furnace and can be dried with hot smoke of the spray drying furnace. This solution has been successfully applied in a number of factories with similar products. For Catalan JSC, this technology is estimated to save about VND4.5 billion per year by reducing coal consumption and the price difference because cobbles can be replaced by coal dust. The investment cost is over VND5 billion and can be retrieved after 13 months.

Finally, some proposed solutions like installing additional measuring and monitoring equipment and setting energy consumption norms for each year can also reduce costs by about VND342 million. Specifically, the management, setting norms and monitoring implementation can save 2 to 10% of energy consumption. The installation of auxiliary gauges can save about 1% of energy consumption.

"Currently, the company has applied some solutions that the energy audit team proposed and they have brought positive initial results. However, for the solutions which require large investment capital, we have to carry out surveys and make feasibility reports due to limited economic potential. We hope to receive technical advice and financial support from the National program on energy efficiency to better use energy and resources in production "- said Mr. Cao Viet Xung, Director of Catalan JSC.

By Minh Duc