Double benefits from industrial symbiosis model

A closed supply chain from fuel to waste treatment helps industrial parks in the province increase their competitive advantage. In the photo: Nippon Sanso Corporation's industrial gas factory supplies fuel for many partners in industrial parks in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Waste from this factory is used as raw material for another factory.

Phu My 1 Industrial Park is home to many large steel production projects in the province. Previously, one of the “difficult” and costly problems of these factories was the treatment of slag and waste from the steel production process. However, since 2018, a large part of the waste in steel production has been recycled by Thanh Dai Phu My Joint Stock Company into cement additives and construction materials.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nghia, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thanh Dai Phu My Joint Stock Company, said that the company's factory has a complete system of processing equipment and means of transportation for waste collection, transportation and treatment activities that meet technical requirements according to regulations of the law on environmental protection. "The strength of this recycling system is that it does not generate wastewater or waste and can recover almost 95-100% of scrap impurities and steel slag," said Mr. Nghia.

In Phu My 3 Specialized Industrial Park and some neighboring industrial parks, in the past, the source of chemicals for paper production was mainly imported from abroad at a rather expensive cost. In recent years, this source of raw materials has been supplied by 2 factories right in the industrial park of SEIKO PMC Vietnam Co., Ltd. and Arakawa Chemical Vietnam Co., Ltd. (both owned by Japanese investors).

Mr. Hiroshi Matsumura, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Kraft of Asia Paperboard & Packaging Co., Ltd., a large paper manufacturing enterprise in the province, said that enterprises producing chemicals and auxiliary materials for the paper manufacturing industry investing in Phu My 3 Industrial Park bring benefits to both sides.

“When we met in Japan, we advised them to invest in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, where their industry has strong development potential. Up to now, many paper manufacturers have become customers of these enterprises. They have customers with good consumption volume, and we have a source of raw materials right near the factory with high quality and reasonable prices,” said Mr. Hiroshi Matsumura.

Workers during working hours at the paper factory of Kraft of Asia Paperboard & Packaging Co., Ltd.

Step forward to build ecological industrial park

Currently, the province is forming supply chains for large industries such as: supporting industries; petrochemical industry supply chain, production material supply chain for offshore renewable energy projects, construction materials industry supply chain, paper industry supply chain, etc.

The formation of closed production supply chains is a step forward for industrial parks to build an industrial symbiosis model. This is a cooperative activity between enterprises in an industrial park or in different industrial parks to optimize the use or reuse of raw materials, materials, water, energy, waste, scrap and other factors in the production and business process.

However, industrial symbiosis in the province is still mainly spontaneous, enterprises seek opportunities to connect with each other so it has not developed strongly, mainly in the form of by-product symbiosis.

According to Mr. Le Viet Phuc, Deputy Head of the Provincial Industrial Park Management Board, the province is implementing the project of Technical Support for the construction of model industrial parks/smart industrial parks with ecological orientation and the application of information technology in management and operation with the project's goal of building sustainable industrial parks according to environmental, social and governance criteria. Including the construction of an industrial symbiosis model.

“Not only by-product and waste symbiosis, enterprises in the province's industrial parks also have potential for different types such as utility symbiosis and infrastructure sharing, supply symbiosis, service symbiosis…”, Mr. Phuc added.

Article and photos: QUANG VINH

Source: https://baobariavungtau.com.vn/kinh-te/202503/loi-kep-tu-mo-hinh-cong-sinh-cong-nghiep-1038204/