Sugar company gets gov’t support for renewable energy facility
A sugar company has built a facility that converts wastes to a new source of renewable energy, the first of its kind in the country. The Fluidized Bed Gasification (FBG) System facility was recently unveiled by the Raw Brown Sugar Milling Co. Inc. in Pamplona, Negros Oriental.
The FBG System, introduced by the Department of Science and Technology- Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI), is used by manufacturing plants to convert biomass into new source of renewable energy.
Agricultural wastes are “burned” when a limited amount of oxygen or air is introduced into the FBG System to produce carbon dioxide and energy. This drives a second reaction that further converts waste material to hydrogen and additional carbon dioxide – the gasification stage.
This helps supply the electric power requirement and bring down electricity costs, according to lawyer Alejandro Florian Alcantara, president and CEO of the company.
“I see several advantages to powering our turbines with synthetic gas produced by ITDI’s FBG System. These are 100 percent reduction of our agricultural wastes, production of our monthly electricity requirement at no cost, and significant reduction of gaseous pollutants due to the near-zero combustion process,” Alcantara said.
The system is expected to provide around 40 percent of the company’s total electricity requirement. The plant produces nearly 1,100 tons of pure, whole and unrefined muscovado annually. Muscovado is produced from fresh sugarcane juice without using bleaching agents.