CENTRALIZED VERSUS DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

It was recently reported in The Star (Saturday June 6, 2009) that according to Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui
“On a related matter, he said the ministry was drafting a working paper on its suggestion to close the 4,394 small sewage treatment plants and replace them with larger regional plants.
Chin said small plants were uneconomical as IWK would have to send maintenance teams periodically to oversee them.
He said he would discuss this with the Housing and Local Government Ministry, Department of Environment, Economic Planning Unit and Kuala Lumpur City Hall.”
So before we go rushing into projects where even angels fear to tread, let us study the consequences involved and choose the right option. Wastewater plants are not cheap to build and operate. They are a source of myriad of problems if not properly designed or operated.
There are the advantages and disadvantages of both options. It all really depends on various factors such:
1 Location of the population
2 Size of population to be served
3 Composition and complexity if the wastewaters
The trend is however nowadays building small wastewater treatment plants, decentralizing and serving up stream.
The problem with our existing wastewater treatment plants is not whether it is centralized or decentralized, but poor servicing and monitoring of the process. A refurbished and reserviced wastewater treatment plants can improve by 40% in efficiency compared to before servicing.
Through my experience, I have always found out that waste treatment plants are not properly cared for. Their performance not monitored, to make things worst their aerators are either not working or purposely switched off to save costs. Wastewater treatment plant operators only try to work their treatment plants if the environmental officers are after them.




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…AND I DREAM OF FERMENTORS

My love for fermentation technology or more specifically fermentors, start with my disillusionment with biology. I have studied biology for a substantial amount of my school and undergraduate days in the sixties and seventies. The biology syllabus both in schools and universities never really did change or keep up with times. It has always been taxonomy, biodiversity, anatomy etc etc.

Right from lower secondary schools to preuniversity and even university it is always the repeating chants of..”xylem, phloem, antipodal cells…………..” Repeating the Latin names of flowers and plants and insects… Yughhhhhh!!!

The point of crossing in my life came accidentally. ( Or was it destiny??) It was the day when my science teacher told me about the wonders of microbes or germs!. (Guess he didn’t know much what he was talking about then!!!..hehehe) . But he did arouse my curiosity! I just cant avoid wondering how something so small and cant be seen got so much power to cause diseases and make beer?. Wow!! That was really something and mind blowing!

During my final or Honours year, I recalled being taken on an industrial visit to a monosodium glutamate factory, brewery and even a conventional wastewater treatment plant! Wow! Was I impressed by the scale of the stainless steel fermentors and the capacity of microorganisms to produce the fermentation products. From that moment in time I was smitten in love with fermentors!. You can never realized how a simple field trip can leave you with a lasting impression more than the hours spent in lecture halls and laboratories

By the end of my undergraduate years I was very sure that Industrial microbiology or more precisely fermentation technology will be the obsession of my life.

I decided to pursue Industrial microbiology at the Wolfson Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology at the Department of Microbiology. During that circa, the Department of microbiology was in the era that has become to many la belle epoque of Cardiff microbiology . There were the giants of industrial microbiology at the department such as Prof DE Hughes who headed the department with illustrious staff such as EC Hill, DA Stafford, JWT Wimpenny, AG Callely, strong names in industrial microbiology.

Activities of the Wolfson Laboratory for industrial microbiology, including with Mr Ted Hill, some of the earliest work on bioremediation of oil spillage in coastal waters (Torrey Canyon Disaster, off the Cornish coast in 1967). Over the next decade this group pioneered the scientific study of large scale anaerobic digestion treatment plants for the treatment of farm and domestic wastes and the recovery and use of methane.

The department have strong contacts and research grants with various industries ranging from wastewater treatment to even petroleum microbiology.

Fermentors were the in thing in the department then. Wimpenny studied oxygen metabolism, cellulose production and gradstat using the fermentors. Stafford was using fermentors to study anaerobic digestion. Hughes was studying Sphaerotilus natans using fermentors. Hill was studing oil degradation with fermentors

Till today fermentors still fascinate me as it did years ago…..!!!


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JUST MY THOUGHTS ON STARTING FISH SAUCE OR BUDU FERMENTATION INDUSTRY

Most people often have the idea of commercialization of the fish sauce fermentation from the level of a small cottage industry to a large manufacturing concern. They seem to think that the whole process of translation from a cottage to a large fermentation industry is smooth sailing. In reality it is more complex not only at the level of increasing the scale of manufacturing the budu fermentation but to the level of increasing the market demand and successful marketing.

I always feel very sad when I see some new ventures or projects failed. Such failures will leave very devastating impacts on the investors or entrepreneurs. Lots of investments in terms of money, energy and hope will be thrown into the wind. At the same time I just can’t help feeling very angry and disappointed with these entrepreneurs. Had they done proper studies on the technical and economic viability of the projects, such catastrophes could have been avoided. Maybe they do not listen to advice or worst they listened to the ‘wrong advice’.

THE BUSINESS PLAN
They should have their business plan on paper first. Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal. They should not be rushing into the projects without doing proper studies and background research.

There are many questions that need to be answered before embarking on such projects. It is very important at this early stage to be critical of the project and to find what possibly could go wrong rather than dreaming that the project will be smooth sailing and guaranteed to succeed.

During this stage of planning ‘allowances’ must be made for contingencies or unexpected changes.

Preparing a business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines: finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management, operations management and marketing among others..

It can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines.[

If the proposed project failed on paper then high chances are that the business will fail in reality. At least failing on paper would not incur much collateral damages such as costs of investments.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FISH SAUCE INDUSTRY

Fish sauce fermentation is a traditional food fermentation industry. It is often carried out on small scale or the backyard industry. Very few of the fish sauce industries are carried out at industrial scale in Thailand. Thailand is the major global producer for fish sauce.

The key element in this industry is the availability of fishes which are used as the substrate for fermentation. Different countries or manufacturers use different type of fish for the fish sauce fermentation

With the stock of fish dwindling down, it is risky at present to carry out fish sauce fermentation, unless you are willing to go for alternative supply of cheaper fishes. There was a time years ago when anchovies used for fish sauce fermentation is plenty and cheap. During those days the anchovies are the poor man’s diet. But not now!. Anchovies are expensive and even the poor man can’t afford it

In the economics of fish sauce fermentation it is important that the industry is run continuously and efficiently to be viable. We cannot have most of the times workers and machines being idle.



TECHNOLOGY OF PRODUCING FISH SAUCE
In Malaysia making fish sauce is mainly in the realms of small scale cottage industries. Production is viable to service local or regional demands. The method of fish sauce produced by these small cottage industries is often not geared for high volume production.

1 Fermentation Technology is passive
2 Non mechanized or automated
3 More of free time industries
4 Fermentation is too long from six months to more than a year

ECONOMY OF SCALE
One of the hallmarks of business of manufacturing is to produce the products at the lowest cost while still making profits. Lowering the price will make it attractive to consumers and reduce or eliminate competitors of the same products. This can only be achieved if the volume of production is higher thus the cost of producing the unit price will be lowered. In fermentation this would mean involving bigger fermentation capacity which is not normally achieved in small cottage industries

THE SUCCESS OF EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON MARKETING
Just how popular are the fish sauce? In Malaysia, fish sauce or budu are only highly regarded by people in the East coast or originating from East coast. Will their number be sufficient to make the business of fish sauce fermentation economically viable?

As fish sauce is an acquired taste it might be difficult to penetrate the European countries or United States. These countries too are very stringent regarding the standards and quality of how the sauce is manufactured. I doubt many will pass through the stringent barriers of GMP, HACCP and QC control. It should be clean and free of possible pathogens

PRODUCT POTENTIAL?

Yes! Fish sauce is an excellent product and has potential to succeed in global market. However, in order to succeed there need to be visible improvements in the production process, packaging and marketing




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THE ECONOMICS AND VIABILITY OF FERMENTATION WORKSHOPS

There are many fermentation technology workshops being carried out here and around the world. Since fermentation technology workshop is basically a academic business venture, profitability and viability of the fermentation technology workshops are important consideration to determine if the workshop is a success or failure as a business project. (Unless we consider the fermentation technology as a free public service, then it is a different story!)

Conducting of fermentation workshops could initially be seen as a business transaction between the “seller” and “buyer”. The seller is the party conducting the workshop and the buyer is the customer or client of the workshops

The seller will provide:
1 Laboratory facilities such:
Laboratories working space, laboratory facilities and equipments
inclusive of the various services

2 Laboratory consumables such as chemicals, media, laboratory
coats, protective mask, goggles and safety helmets

3 Array of fermentation equipments and ancillaries from upstream to
downstream depending on the type and specificity of costs

4 Arrangement for site visits inclusive of transportation if included

5 Teaching staff that include lecturers, consultants, facilitators and
support technical staff

6 Lecture halls and tutorial rooms plus all facilities for teaching such
as notes, stationeries

All these items must be itemized for costing. That includes:
1 Capital cost of equipments
2 Salaries and allowances



With regard to lodging and accommodation these are other factors which must be considered, usually the organizers will provide a list of hotels for the participants to choose and make their own arrangement

The critical points to be considered are:
1 Number of days of the course
2 Number of participants
3 Break point of profitability

It is not cheap to conduct such courses, unless you are willing to forgo profits or get the courses heavily subsidized or sponsored by the government or university for public relations exercise.

Fermentation technology workshops are not like the business, motivational, how to pass examination or even Feng Shui talks. These talks, workshops or seminars are conducted to large masses in hotels and are really pricey! Yet people are willing to come to these talks hoping for new ideas and they are willing to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of attending such talks. Fermentation technology workshops are different. They are usually few registrants to the workshops. The investment in capital equipment for the fermentation technology workshop is high. So what is the right price to charge participants at fermentation technology workshops?

Even though there is a low number of participants for fermentation technology workshops, one should come up with a very reasonable charge or fees for the very expensive equipments used. Fermentors are very expensive equipments and are easily damaged by improper use or little care. The electrodes themselves are easily damaged by improper use or accidents. Some of the damages are cumulative and will not be detected immediately after the workshops. In the end the Department has to bear for the expensive repair and maintenance of the equipment. If you don’t take these factors into considerations the organizers themselves will end up paying more for the meager charges obtained in attending the workshops. In business this is called a losing venture. There must be business acumen in running these courses


It is simply ridiculous to rent or use the expensive fermentors at RM200 or RM300 daily. Car rentals are easily obtained at that price. Mind you the cars are cheaper!

I guess the clients of the workshops are happy and laughing their way to the bank! Its dirt cheap to pay at that price to attend the fermentation workshops!. (The organizers are happy too because they can proudly show their list of clients. He he he !!!)



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FISH SAUCE FERMENTATION (BUDU FERMENTATION)

PICTURE TAKEN FROM WWW.KOSMO.COM.MY)
I have recently come across this interesting write up in the local paper KOSMO (www.kosmo.com.my) dated 2 June 2009 about a local entrepreneur getting involved in fish sauce fermentation or Budu fermentation.

Budu is a fish sauce fermentation which basically uses anchovies as the main fish for the fermentation. The fish sauce is very popular or almost idolized by the people from the state of Kelantan and Trengganu.



The fermentation process basically involves the adding of certain proportion of salt to water to the fish in the fermenting vat. Depending on the producer the budu fermentation might take up to a few months.

The quality of the fish sauce depends on a lot of factors such as the type of fish being used, the proportion of salt being used, duration of fermentation and of course the acidity of the fermentation process. There are of course variations in the recipes for budu fermentation depending on each manufacturer

I find this article to be interesting because:

1 It is the first grand attempt to produce budu on a large or industrial scale using large fermentation tanks.


According to the article the initial fermentation were carried out in in cement tanks or fibre glass tanks. There are about 20 fibre glass tanks 1.2 metre high and 2 metres wide.

At the end of about 6 month fermentation, the fermented fish sauce are kept in containers as shown below before being processed and bottled up


2 Since the budu fermentation is relying upon the supply of anchovies the process of fermentation could only be carried out between June to November when the anchovies are in abundant supply. From December to May are for cooking filtering and bottling the budu sauce




DISCUSSIONS

Budu is one of the diversity of fish sauces fermented or produced in the region such as Thailand and Vietnam. The basic fermentation process is the same all though there could be variations in the type of fishes used and the recipes followed.

In general budu is more a cottage industry and supplies the local consumption

Attempts to scale up the fermentation process to industrial scale are often hampered by:

1) Lack of demand for the products as budu is an acquired taste
2) Competition from similar products produced by other countries
3) Budu is considered a slow and passive fermentation process which technically would not fit the criteria of industrial fermentation
4) The supply of anchovies is seasonal and limited and the fish is widely used in everyday cooking making it costly to produce budu
5) In most of the cottage industries fermentation, GMP and HACCP are very difficult to be adhered to

The viability of budu and its transformation into a large scale industry need to be properly studied before going all out.

We need to know important data such as:
1 What are the rate limiting steps in the budu fermentation industries
2 Better fermentor or bioreactor design for budu fermentation
3 To carry out better marketing and sales plan to convince the public
4 Carry further scientific research to improve the quality of budu sauce
5 Need better GMP and HACCP established procedures
6 Consistency and high quality in the final product especially using SOP

QUALITY CONTROL AND SURVIVAL OF THE BUDU FERMENTATION INDUSTRY

As previously mentioned the budu or fish sauce is not the sole proprietary rights of Malaysian budu makers. There are similar products produced by Thailand, Vietnam and even Philipines. If the budu fermentation industry is to survive and expand it must be able to compete with the other fish sauce manufacturers. Sadly to say in this aspect our budu fermentation industries are not ready to compete with the budu global market. They need to improve and be competitive and be at par with the other countries fish sauce industries.

It doesnt take a lot of convincing where we are by just visiting a few of the budu industries to see where we are. Reality bites!

One of the most important thing in the budu industry is not so much as increasing the volume of production but to bring real QC or qualuty control of international standards into our budu industries.

The subject of QC covers every aspect of budu fermentation right up from the upstream activities to the downstream processing when the budu is bottled or packed. In the application of QC in the budu industries we cannot rely on the art of budu fermentation and the skill acquired from father to son alone. We have to go technological and scientific in our approach. There is no such thing as half hearted effort. It must be an all out change for Quality

Quality control starts with the step of getting the substrate of the fermentation itself, ie the fish or anchovies. For high quality budu you need to use the best, the freshest or the highest quality anchovies.

The manufacturing process facilities of the budu fermentation must be very hygienic and comply with good manufacturing practice (GMP). Sanitation standard of the place must be of the highest standard and in no way the manufacturing facilities look like a dump or a workshop!Every component of the manufacturing process which includes the machines, equipments and even the budu fermentors must be GMP approved. Just building a few fire glass fermentation tanks or concrete tanks would not be sufficient to convince

In the GMP of budu fermentation it is of utmost importance that things like personal hygiene of workers be considered. There should not be any free acess of pests or rodents or any unwanted visitors that might find its way into the premise or even the fermentation vats. The quality of water used in the fermentation must be monitored. Cleaning and washings including the use of disinfection of the floor and facilities should be carried out regularly. Waste disposal issues must be addressed.

Strict quality control programme must be implemented so as not to allow products of suspected quality to go through

Since budu is a food and a popular one too, the international food standard or (CODEX), HACCP must be followed. Only then can we be assured that the industry has met international standard and can face global market


The quality of the final product must be assured by quality control.This is important as then our customer will feel safe and reassured. In view of this the QC department must ensure that the product comply with the requirements of the various regulating bodies such as the ministry of health. The QC lab must be equipped with the right equipment and qualified staff to carry this work













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STREAMLINING FERMENTATION

The fermentation industry is not only labour but also energy intensive industries. Some of its products are facing intensive competition not only from the chemical industries producing the same products. In the case of certain fermentation products that could not be manufactured chemically this would not be a threat. The other threat is the competition from countries like China and India which could produce the same products but much cheaper

In order to survive any fermentation industries must be competitive enough to be able to produce fermentation products at a competitive price. One of the available methods to cut the cost of production thus lowering the final price of the products on the market is to be more efficient in its production. This would involve streamlining the fermentation industries in terms of improving efficiency of production, using less energy or using energy more efficiently

Streamlining could be referred as the improvement of an overall process, and the individual steps of the process, with a goal of meeting or exceeding client needs and expectations. The exercise of streamlining could itself be applied in many activities such as business, motorcar production, office management as well as fermentation industries

Stream lining is a rational exercise, whereby the whole fermentation process right from upstream to downstream is identified. The various steps involved are studied for room for improvement and whether they are run under optimal conditions. The success will be reflected in the end results that are expected. The company has shown much improvised financial performance in the last two years as a result of the financial as well as administrational restructuring that has been initiated during the period.

The fermentation industry is a dynamic entity that follows the sequence of events right up from upstream to downstream. It is often considered a one way flow. Any changes upstream in the streamlining process will affect the efficiency of the downstream unit processes. Care has to be taken to see that once streamlining process has been effectively carried out by not causing changes in operating regimes or even microbial contamination as the whole streamlining activity will be thrown out of gear. In the streamlining of the fermentation industries it is often a challenge to maintain this sensitive and optimal window of operations as the process is sensitive and fine tuned

IMPORTANT STEPS IN STREAM LINING

1 LOGISTICAL ARRANGEMENT OF UNIT OPERATIONS FOR SMOOTH TRANSFER SPATIALLY AND TEMPORALLY

The arrangement of the unit operations must be in logical sequence of the flow and must be within proximity of each other to allow smoother transfer between one process and another

2 SMOOTH VOLUMETRIC FLOWS FROM START TO END TO AVOID BOTTLENECKS

During the fermentation process there must smooth flow of materials being transformed right up from upstream, mid stream to downstream. The volumetric flows, materials and even man power must be considered

3 PROPER UNIT OPERATIONS ARE OPERATING EFFICIENTLY
The proper unit operations of the right capacity and specifications must be used. The equipments must be efficient and in good order and functioning properly. In certain situations there must be stand by units in case of emergency failures

4 FERMENTATION FLOW IS CLOSELY MONITORED BY SENSORS AND UNDER FULL CONTROL OF FEED BACK LOOPS

In this age of automation, sensors, computers and feedback loops will give us the immediate status of the process temporally as well spatially. This computer displays allow us to look graphically at the process and detect where likely trouble spots will occur or any build up of problems in the process



5 NEED OF SOPs
The use of SOPS will allow consistency of process, materials and products and avoid sudden problems occurring

6 NO ROOM FOR CHANGES
If in the application of streamlining is carried out, any sudden changes may affect the streamlining. Therefore it is important no sudden changes are carried out suddenly. In fermentation using non homogenous substrate composition this can be a challenge!





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BRINGING QUALITY CONTROL INTO FERMENTATION WORKSHOPS

In the last few years and up to the present, there seems to be many fermentation technology workshops being offered by the universities.
Analyses of the brochures and advertisements about the fermentation workshops offered have left many questions on:

1 Quality of the workshops
2 Course contents
3 Degree of hands on practicals offered to participants
4 Experience and qualifications of those conducting the fermentation
Workshops
5 Number of participants and work experience
6 Whether the so called “hands on” workshops are just demonstrations or “ look on” workshops
7 Whether those workshops involve real industrial or case solving workshops
8 Whether there are ‘brain storming sessions” with experienced facilitators

There should be some sort of accreditation and validation of these fermentation technology workshops, so that all parties concerned will benefit from the course. This continuous monitoring and assessing of the fermentation technology workshops will ultimately lead to better quality fermentation workshops.

COST OF WORKSHOPS
I don’t think the cost of attending the workshops will be an issue if real quality courses are being offered. Most companies are more than willing to pay if the courses are really positive and contributing to the company

REASON FOR ATTENDING WORKSHOPS
As I have noticed in many fermentation workshops, the workshop are supposed to be practical orientated. So stop wasting too much time in giving unnecessary lectures. After all most of the participants have enough experience or education. The reason they are attending the workshops are more to learn something new or upgrade their knowledge.

That is why I feel in such fermentation workshops, the participants should be more focused as the target group and not taking from such a diverse background

SYLLABUS OF WORKSHOPS

This is a very sensitive part of any fermentation workshops. I cannot help noticing almost all the fermentation technology have almost the same course contents, Very basic and very introductory. More the type the salesman would have demonstrated after you have bought the fermentors!

They teach you only the basics. Maybe for that syllabus its more suitable for those who really knew nothing about fermentors

Usually when we attend workshops we are trying to learn things which are not in the books or lecture notes. We are interested in real experience or tips and techniques

You need to have specific workshops and more in depth. For example, just one three day workshop covering aeration of fermentors, another three days for fermentor sterilization. Now that is really hands on workshops!!

Organizers of fermentation workshops should look towards making more advanced and diverse topics for their course. In reality there are demands for such fermentation workshops and its application in various fields

“HANDS ON”= DEMONSTRATIONS?
It is just illogical to say that the workshop is hands on when the participants are only exposed to one fermentor. It is not hands on workshop if the paricipants are really not involved in the practical but just observing the demonstrator


TIME ALLOCATION
I really have my doubts you can learn really much or significant within two or three days. And covering such diverse topics….


THE FACILITATORS

The track record of the facilitators must be impressive with respect to their academic and professional experience. Sad to say in most of these workshops not much is said about the identity of the speakers or their experience. There is often a void in the listing of their industrial experience

What I find so sad is the claims of how good they are just “self praise “comments within their own websites. With regard to how good you are or not is not for us to judge but by others or our peers!

In the end as I can see it, the success of the workshop is based more from the positive changes, acquiring of knowledge and experience and the change it can bring back to the company. Failure to achieve this would mean that the workshop is a failure and just a waste of time and money but a well paid holiday and getting a valueless paper certificate of attendance

It is for this reason that when holding the workshops, that reputation is at stake. If the reputation is bad its doubtful more participants will be coming to attend more workshops










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