Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Amazing observations in Vietnam – Rice Hulls (Part 2)

16 September 2011

We spent a whole day travelling around the Vietnamese countryside south of Ho Chi Minh City to observe facilities that convert rice hulls, or ipa, (the waste by-product of rice milling) into bio fuel. Vietnam is the fifth largest producer of rice worldwide, after China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and accounts for about 34.5 million tons or 6.8% of world supply in 2009-2010 (http://www.rice-trade.com). What I witnessed was that they seem to have already made a head way in creating a business out of processing rice hulls into bio fuel. As claimed, they also have developed a market for this product in Europe (particularly Germany), in addition to the domestic demand where the bio fuel is blended with coal used as fuel for boilers. This development has also benefited the rice farmers since what used to be treated as a worthless by-product of rice milling was turned into something of value that gives them additional income.
First stop was the Ben Luc District, in Long An province, an hour and a half drive from HCM City, where we visited Vina Star, a Taiwanese owned company that started their bio fuel business only two years ago. They have a facility composed of 15 briquetting machines (built by them using parts sourced from Japan and China) with 300 tons per day capacity. The machines discharge the roughly 1.5 x 3 inch briquettes into a centralized belt conveying system that feeds them to a vibrating screen (to separate the broken pieces and fine powder), and eventually to the packaging station where they are manually placed in polybags. The plant looks well kept, with systems visibly installed. I was given a tour of the facility by the VP, Mr. Roy Chen where I also observed their machine shop, their raw material loading dock located by the waterway, and their main control/power room which was air conditioned and kept immaculately clean.
As explained by the company’s officials, they do mostly only briquetting operations. The raw material they use is actually powdered rice hulls, delivered to them from the rice farms where they (Vina Star) provide machines, called pulverisers, as well as the buildings needed both for pulverizing operations and material storage. An actual model of the machine, complete with dust collector, and which I had the opportunity to scrutinize, is set up for display in their administration building. The pulverisers, which cost about US$ 1,000.00 each, are operated by the farmers themselves, and who are organized into groups. The farmers pay for the power consumed by the 30 hp motor of the pulveriser as well as the repair and maintenance requirements, usually provided by the company’s personnel. One machine can produce 750 kg/hr, with the pulverizing blades lasting usually for 6 months. The farmers can earn an additional 2,000 Vietnamese Dong per kilogram of pulverized rice hull sold, which is substantial as an added income, given that they sell their rice at only 4,000 Dong/kg. As I was made to understand, Vina Star, while still expanding this project, has currently more than 30 units installed in Long An province where the farmers can conveniently use the river to deliver their products using boats and barges. Their customers on the other hand blend the briquettes (Gross Calorific Value= 4149 Kcal/kg.) with coal on a 50/50% basis with good results, while allowing them also to earn carbon credits.
Next stop, about an hour’s drive further south, was a small machine shop (also owned and operated by a Taiwanese) in Vin Binh District, Tien Giang province, where they amazingly fabricate a local version of a small extruder that can produce compressed and partly carbonized rice hulls in cylindrical form. The shop, which at the most occupies 30 sq.m. of narrow twisting space, has only two small engine lathes and welding machines in addition to small tools; but they seem to be making all components (including electric heaters), except the electric motor. The extruder has an approximately 5 inch diameter screw with a barrel that is 18 inches long at most, and the entire machine must have a footprint of about 2 feet x 6 feet. The machine shop, however, seem to have their own concept of what organized means, because despite the disarray that I observed, they seem to be busy enough and are actually turning out the machines. From my point of view, the system they have, is contrary to what I know is the effective way of running that kind of operation. Housekeeping for example is nowhere to be seen, as one has to be careful not to step on machine components and other metal pieces while navigating to the other parts of the shop; and if just for this alone, productivity must be suffering. The operating environment, to my mind, puts the quality of their products in question.
From Vin Binh, we continued southward for about 1-1/2 hours to My Phouc district, also in Tien Giang province where we visited the Anh Ngok Company, a Vietnamese owned firm that produces rice husk pellets. They have a huge and massive machine that is roughly 12 feet high and a base of about 12 feet x 12 feet. It can produce 1.5 tons/hr of pellets and we were told that it was locally designed and built by the owner, who seems to have adopted the operating principle of the pelletiser used to produce hog feeds. Unlike Vina Star, the first firm we visited, rice hulls are fed directly through an inclined belt conveyor to Anh Ngok’s machine, which is run by a 200 HP electric motor to produce the roughly 3/8 inch diameter x 3/4 inch long pellets. According to them, they sell their produce directly to the domestic boiler operators who feed the pellets directly to their boilers on a 100 percent basis. Unfortunately we were not able to see the machine operating as it was currently undergoing renovation. The current die was being replaced with another one with bigger die-holes, geared to increase the machine’s throughput significantly, and effect an increase in the plant’s productivity, as well as a decrease in its specific power consumption.
Our last stop, about 30 minutes away, was at Le Quoc Cuong, a company that uses the small locally made extruders earlier described. They have 10 units of these machines running side by side, all of which are discharging their roughly 16 inch compressed, coreless, cylindrical and partly charred bio fuel on to a flat belt conveyor. The conveyor moves the cylinders to the operator at the end of the line who sorts and stacks them on pallets prior to being manually packaged. Like in Anh Ngok, rice hulls are also directly fed to the extruders of Le Quoc Cuong, but this time from bins installed overhead. The cylinders are formed through the compressive and heating action imparted on the rice hulls as they are pushed by the rotating screw through the heated cylinder and the die. Each of the extruders are driven by a 30 kw electric motor and the barrel heated by a roughly 4 kw heater. The maintenance requirements of the machines, however, seems tedious if the information we received (i.e., that for a 24 hour operation the life of the barrel is just 1 week and that of the screw 3 days) is accurate.

After the tour, I felt so envious for the Philippines. This envy, although initially driven by earlier observations, was made more intense by the information gained that day about the boon to the Vietnamese farmers of the successful rice hull bio-fuel project. My curiosity as to how a country ravaged by 116 years of war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War), can successfully create and implement projects that would bring about the uplifting of its masses (e.g., the farmers) in a matter of 35 years made me to do a small research.
I learned that the country and its people had undergone unthinkable trials and horror brought about firstly, by their almost 100 years of fighting against their colonizer, and soon after driving their colonizer out in 1954, the atrocities of the 21 year Vietnam War. Not surprising to see is the strong existence of corruption and factionalism as significant elements that caused the defeat of the losing faction in the war, and the strong presence of discipline and nationalism amongst the members of the faction that won.
I also learned the following (mostly from https://www.cia.gov/library): a) that the Phl and Vietnam have more or less the same population at 90 million; b) that both countries have almost the same land mass: Phl-300k sq km; Vietnam-329k sq km; c) labor force comparison: Phl approx 39 million; Vietnam approx 47 million; d) % labor force in agriculture: Phl-33%; Vietnam-54%; e) share of agriculture in GDP: Phl-13.9%; Vietnam-20.6%; f) unemployment rate: Phl-7.3%; Vietnam-4.4%; and, g) % population below poverty line: Phl-32.9%; Vietnam-10.6%. The preceding statistics clearly shows that the country’s leadership has succeeded significantly in bringing down the level of “deep poverty” as well as in creating the environment that generated jobs for its workforce which reportedly grows by more than one million every year. The cruel experience from the 116 years of war must have instilled in them the importance of addressing the needs of the population, as well as the value of unity, honesty, discipline and nationalism in pushing the country towards progress, and keeping it intact.
Perhaps, we should take a cue from Vietnam, and learn from (and hopefully not undergo) their experience, with respect to our effort to bring progress to our country. Perhaps it is providential that we now have a President who is hell-bent on curbing corruption and has a team that supports him. It would be to the country’s good if our government officials support the President’s efforts by avoiding selfish factionalism. It would also to the best interest of the nation if the citizenry themselves reinforce the Presidents effort by deepening their sense of discipline and nationalism and show it through simple actions.
Perhaps it is also high time that the government officials who have a say in the future of the country come up with honest to goodness programs that first address the simple burdens that the population encounters everyday (e.g., traffic and transport, health and medication concerns, corrupt peace officers and enforcers, food and dwellings, etc.) and show through results that government really really cares. Maybe our economist and law makers should put more emphasis on the creation of jobs, rather than on what the government should gain in taxes, when formulating laws that would impact on the economy. Maybe an effort that can be immediately started is to replicate Vietnam’s rice hull bio-fuel success and develop our own Philippine version of the project. The engineers could get together with business to design a machine and develop a system/scheme that would fit Philippine conditions, and the government could get their act together so the investors will be encouraged to come in and support the project. Perhaps those who are in power can craft less grandiose economic programs that would enable the participation of not just the big foreign and domestic investors but also the small local investors. They, after all, account for the bulk of the economic activity and should be given the opportunity to participate in job generation. A nation can be genuinely strong and stable economically, if the strength comes from a broad range of the population and not just from large but few organizations. And perhaps, we can also in the near future amaze others by showing them how we, Filipinos, can improve ourselves and our country, and bring about prosperity to the bulk of our citizenry.

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