Wednesday, April 30, 2008 DOST develops biogas tech, sealing machines for SMEs By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
WITH large-scale biogas digester facilities soon to be established in Bacolod City to partly solve the garbage problem, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-Industrial Technology Development Institute has developed a "cheap and environment-friendly portable biogas digester."
In a photo presented by Dost-Negros field office director Alan Francis Dara-ug, the portable biogas digester is the size of a big oil drum and ideal to service an area as big as a barangay.
As per specifications, the drum-type biogas digester can store up to 211 liters of biodegradable materials from kitchen waste, leaves and animal manure.
The digester also has a capacity of a regular liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Dara-ug said: "There is a need for the public in Negros to know that there is a substitute for LPG."
He, however, stressed it is important to actually see how this portable digester operates.
"With its affordable cost, a barangay can benefit from this portable digester in terms of gathering waste and converting them into cooking fuel," Dara-ug said.
The digester costs P9-10,000.
Dara-ug also presented vacuum-sealing equipment, which is a "floor model mobile type."
This equipment can meet the packaging needs of food sector, supermarkets, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and electronics industry.
Dara-ug said that in Negros where homemade food industry is thriving, this sealing equipment is very ideal cost-wise and to the "presentability" of the product.
All these are originally Pinoy, which means invented by Filipinos themselves, Dara-ug said.
