23/10/05 (Bangkok Post) - Asian Palm Oil Co will be used as a role modelfor industries that want to turn pollution into profit, after successfullytackling its problems in Krabi, according to the Industrial WorksDepartment (IWD).

Pollution is a common problem among agricultural processing plants,dealing in palm oil, sugar and marine foods, which discharge smelly, toxicwater and fumes that can cause a problem with neighbouring residents.

Prosecuting factories that continue normal practices and fail to stoppolluting is not an effective way to solve the problem, said SomchatSatitsuksanoh, deputy director general of the IWD.

For example, the IWD advised Asian Palm Oil to use modern technology tosolve its pollution problem after complaints from the local communityabout smelly, waste water.

The company spent 22 million baht on an environmentally friendly systemthat uses biogas from waste water, a byproduct of crude palm production,to make electricity in a closed, anaerobic tank.

When the system was introduced in 1999, biogas was used to supply 300households with electricity through the Provincial Electricity Authority(PEA).

The company also sourced new income, by charging the PEA for electricity,and reduced expenses by using its own power in operations.

Mr Somchat said Asian Palm Oil was the first of 15 palm oil factories inKrabi to utilise waste water. Others hadn't followed suit, he said,probably because they weren't aware of bio-gas technology.

IWD specialists plan to visit factories around the country to explain theadvances that can be made with a small amount of investment. If theoperators are short of funding, the SME Bank would help them, he added.

Asian Palm Oil has already recovered its investment and is looking atother ways of utilising more of its waste.