The Raw Brown Sugar Milling Company, Inc. (RBSMI) has become the first sugarcane manufacturing facility in the country to be powered by a fluidized bed gasification (FBG) system facility.
“I see several advantages to powering our turbines with synthetic gas produced by DOST Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) FBG System,” RBSMI President and CEO Atty. Alejandro Florian Alcantara said.
“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 of the FBG System,” he added.
He said that the FBG will be useful in supplying the existing power requirement of the firm.
The company’s power usage amounts to around 80 KW, and with improvements planned, the power equipment is estimated to go up to 175 KW, Alcantara disclosed.
The FBG system may reduce the electricity cost of the company, and was funded by the Department of Science and Technology amounting to P990,000.
The FBG system provides options for manufacturing plants that produce biomass waste as by-products to convert these as new renewable energy source to further enhance productivity and competitiveness.
“This is largely because biomass is sustainable source of alternative energy. With near-zero combustion, the synthetic gas or syngas produced during gasification promotes use of a higher quality of fuel or energy,” DOST – ITDI Engr. Apollo Victor Bawagan said.
The Raw Brown Sugar Milling Company is located in Negros Occidental.