As a long-standing and widely known enterprise in Hai Duong province, Hong Duong Ltd operates mainly in the field of processing and production of end-products/ spices from raw agricultural and salt inputs. Moreover, the company also specializes in the service of supplying equipments used in the production process.
Coming from the needs to optimize operating costs, improve productivity and products’ quality while also contribute to the campaign “Using energy economically and efficiently in Hai Duong province for the period of 2009-2013”, Hong Duong company has implemented various measures to save energy. Therefore, it has received many praises and recognitions from Center for Science and Technology Research (Department of Science and Technology) in Hai Duong regarding its initiatives in energy audit.
The production process and technology employed in the company consists of many complex stages with strict requirements to ensure food quality and safety.
The main material salt used is imported mainly from India and stored in the company’s warehouse. In here comes the preliminary grinding process. Small and medium sized salt particles will be continuously pumped to cyclone 2 and finely ground in a level 2 mill. Meanwhile, larger particles will be kept on the floor for further grinding until reaching the desired size.
Once reaching the size standards, the grinded salt will be directed to a centrifugal water extractor to remove a portion of the water in the salt to become “refined salt”. It will then be mixed with iodine in set proportions before moving to the drying stage. Lastly, finished salt is bagged and stored in the finished-product warehouse before being shipped out.
The results of internal audit indicate that the operation of coal kilns in the drying area is fairly inefficient. Fire capacity is not optimal due to the mismatch between supply wind flow and coal intake. The efficiency of fuel burning is therefore affected. Additionally, the water separated in the salt drying process generates a considerable amount of heat and steam, making the production area relatively hot and humid. Thus, the company aims to implement changes that would improve the working environments for their employers.
Through preliminary survey, the operation of the drying system mainly relied on manual labor because the salt-drying drum was outdated, hence, unnecessarily consumes quite a remarkable amount of fuels. On the other hand, due to the vision to expand manufacturing capacity, Hong Duong company realizes that the drying system needs to be replaced to increase capacity and product quality while ensuring less energy consumption and reducing labor costs at the same time.
Motivated by the aforementioned reasons, Hong Duong company replaced the obsolete salt drying line with a new one with 2.5 times greater capacity. Part of the heat energy of the exhaust fumes in this line is also used for drying agricultural products. In the same manner, the company also installed inverters to adjust the engine speed that would ultimately reduce power consumption.
Application Center of scientific progress with the technical support from the Institute of Heat and Refrigeration – Hanoi University of Technology had conducted surveys and measurements to calculate the actual energy savings achieved since the production line was put into operation. It is revealed that in addition to saving more than 760 million VNĐ / year, the product quality has also increased while complying with the requirements for food hygiene and safety. This has led to Hong Duong’s increasing competitiveness in the domestic and foreign markets.
According to the company representative, the current solution has helped save more than 30% in energy costs. Furthermore, the new model also contributes to the betterment of the working environment for workers. Of critical importance is the noticeable improvements in capacity and product quality while reducing operation costs. All of this has opened up valuable opportunities for business to compete and meet the needs of both domestic and foreign markets.
