Hong Ngoc Private Enterprise originated from household who started the family business from 2005 with main activities of seedlings cultivation and planning, and test of agarwood production artificially on the Aquilaria tree. Seeing the benefit for local people and enterprise, with support from competent agencies of Nui Thanh district, the company invested in a production unit of artificial agarwood and products at Nui Thanh industrial cluster. Till 2006, the enterprise came into operation with 80 employees, including 50 workers working in workshop and 30 workers as tree planning workers.
Before applying CP, the main problem of the company was solid wastes and wastewater. Annually, the enterprise discharged over 100 tons of residues. The residues when stored for a long time in the enterprise premises will cause leakages of oil to the soil, affecting the groundwater quality in the area.
In addition, the factory’s wastewater exceeded the limit of TCVN 5945-2005 several times (COD (105mg/l) was 1.3 times higher, BOD (50.8mg/l) was approximately equal to the allowed limit, TSS (172mg/l) exceeded 1,7 times. For solving these problems, in 2009, the factory received the support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade via the Cleaner Production in Industry Component (CPI) to conduct Cleaner Production Assessment and Application.
Under the supporting of Ministry of Industry and Trade, on September, 2009 the enterprise had implemented CP assessment. During the first phase (from September 2009 to January 2010), the enterprise established a CP team led by Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc – Director of the enterprise and other 8 members to assess the whole production line. After the Cleaner production assessment (CPA) and identification of waste line, the Team has conducted mass and energy balances for the whole production line. All collected data have been used to analyze and identify Cleaner Production options for each production step.
After conducting CPA and identifying improvement options, the enterprise had implemented 11 CP options can bring quick results with a total investment of VND 1.079 billions. Such application has brought about VND 2 billion in 2010. In the second phase (from January 2010 to November 2010), under the supporting of technical and financial components CPI, the company has actively implemented high-investment options to address thoroughly the emerging environmental issues as replace the old cookers by new cookers with higher efficiency to recovery oil, construct a treatment system of supply water to the agarwood powder rinsing process to reduce solid waste and bring benefits to enterprise. Benefits from those solutions are 844 million dong in 1st quarter of 2011.
Particular benefits derived from Cleaner Production are as follows:
| Technical benefit | Economic benefit | Environmental benefit |
| Phase 1 | Reduction of 28.000-32.000m3 wastewater/year Annually reduction of 547-730 tons CO2 by reducing coal consumption Reduction of 30 tons of CO2 by reduction electricity consumption Annually reduction of 150 tons of waste residues | |
| Reduction of 36,9% specific consumption of material | Saving of 2.038 billion dong | |
| Phase 2 | ||
| Reduction of 40,1% specific consumption of material | Saving of 844 million dong in 1st quarter of 2011 | |
Typical Cleaner Production options of the Company are as follows:
| No. | CP Option | Investment | Performance | CP technique |
| 1 | Install cooled tower and recycling tanks to recycle and reuse wastewater | 20 million dong | Recovered 57.600 m3/year (172.8 million dong/year) | OR |
| 2 | Install water meters at tank | Low cost | Controlled water consumption | GH |
| 3 | Control leakages of pipe system | No cost | GH | |
| 4 | Paving the tank to avoid leakage and ensure hygiene | 25 million dong | Improve product quality, Higher purity | EM |
| 8 | Replace the old cookers by new cookers with higher efficiency | 1,034 billion dong | Saving of 937,4 million dong/year | EM |
| 10 | Construct dreg treatment system to make material for incense production | 3,4 billion dong | 2,2 billion dong | OR |
Remarks: GH: Good Housekeeping; EC: Equipment Change; PC: Process Control
Perceiving the benefits from CP application, the company insisted to maintain the CP team activities and integrate CP in the general management system at place. In order to facilitate CP application, a simple environmental management system has been developed. The Company has also set up environmental policy, whereby it is requested that the environmental protection law and other regulations should be followed strictly, ensuring the sustainable development of the company and reducing waste emission sources. The Company has integrated process management system with the environmental management system, therefore, energy and material consumption is monitored at the same time with the monitoring of pollutant parameters in the waste streams. A sample system and legal procedures are built and applied for environment data collection, checking, classification and data analysis.
An environmental monitoring plan has been initiated. The aim of the plan is to monitor significant improvements from applying CP or to adjust if there is any reduction in environmental benefits. Environment monitoring system includes monitoring air quality and wastewater.
CP not only brings about benefits from energy saving, emission minimization, reduced water consumption, but also helps the Company increase production, improve product quality, and prove prestige. The implemented CP options at the Company are a typical case study for enterprises in the sector of oil production in Vietnam./.