July 18, 2006

 

Vietnamese researchers invent material to save purifying costs

 

 

Shrimp producers in Vietnam can now save as much as 60 percent of their water purifying costs as the country has just invented its own filtration material.

 

Zeolit, a spongy material used in the petroleum, oil filtration and health care industries absorbs hard metals, ions and harmful organic substances.

 

Zeolit, normally imported from Thailand and Indonesia to treat water in shrimp ponds, costs VND5million a tonne (US$312) in Vietnam. Now, a Vietnamese team led by Dr Ta Ngoc Don's has found a way to produce zeolit from clay. The locally produced version, called Bach Khoa zeolit, costs VND2 million a tonne (US$125).

 

The material, which won first prize in the Vietnam 2005 Science and Technology Invention Competition, was the end-result of a decade of research. 

 

Organic substances were used to destroy the old structure of clay and crystallise it into zeolit's structure, a representative said.

 

The provinces of Can Tho and Quang Binh were chosen as sites to apply the new technology. Two initial factories were set up- Quang Binh's Chemicals and Rubber company COSEVCO in 2004 and Can Tho's Fertiliser and Chemicals Company in 2005. Both have a capacity of 300,000 tonnes of zeolit annually.

 

Production of 3,000 tonnes of zeolit a year would meet 0.5 percent of domestic demand.

 

Zeolit can also be used as a fertiliser additive to improve soil quality as it aids in fertiliser absorption. The result is a 20-40 percent reduction of fertiliser use, which brings about savings in costs.

 

Plans are afoot to build a VND10 billion (US$624,800) factory, the first of its kind to produce the fertiliser NPK, which contains zeolit.

 

Zeolit, when combined with other substances found in animal food can improve animal digestion and economise the amount of food they consume. A university is studying the possibility of using zeolit in pig feed.