An invention which helps burn toxic industrial wastes has won first prize at the Vietnamese Talent Awards 2018.

Prof. Dr Pham Ngoc Dang

The Toxic Industrial Waste Incinerator was developed by Prof. Dr Pham Ngoc Dang from the Centre for Environmental Engineering of Towns and Industrial Areas (CEETIE) in 2003.

The project was licensed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in 2006 as the first Toxic Industrial Waste Incinerator in Vietnam.

According to Pro.Pham Ngoc Dang, the idea of the project came from the situation of poorly-treated toxic industrial wastes in many industrial zones in Vietnam. His team had came to several countries including the US, Thailand, and Malaysia to learn about their technologies when building the product.

"But we could only see their products while the foreign producers refused to share their design plans," Dang said. "We also studied from many books and tried to make it in our ways so that it was suitable with the condition and environment of Vietnam."

The 81-year-old scientist also shared about challenges in sourcing finance and finding suitable spare parts when building carrying out the project.

"While we managed to produce most of the components, we also had to order some parts from local and foreign producers including those from Italy and Germany," he said.

The team had proposed to the Hanoi Urban Environment Company (URENCO Hanoi) to invest in producing one Toxic Industrial Waste Incinerator at the Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex and got the investment.

"We built the incinerator at the cost of just VND2.5 billion while buying a foreign-made product of the same capacity could cost VND10 billion," Dang said.

The product, CEETIA -150, which has a capacity of 150 kilos an hour, has been operating effectively at Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex since 2005.

The product was given first prize at in the Environment categories of the Vietnamese Talent Awards 2018 on November 20.

Dtinews