RMG sector paying close attention to Jhute boiler

A case study by Towhidur Rahman, Esmot Jahan Kanta and Fatima Binte Khaled

Few numbers of RMG factories in Bangladesh started using eco-friendly and economic boiler run by fabric solid waste produced from cutting and sewing section, popularly known as ‘’Jhute’’. In recent days, due to the hike of the gas price, bureaucratic delay of getting gas line authorization, factory started to search alternative power for their production and the solution comes up with having ‘Jhute’ boiler where steam is being generated using fabric wastage as the raw material. This boiler is not only reducing power cost of the factory, also helping factories to be environmentally sustainable. Most importantly, ‘Jhute’ boiler is risk and hassle-free and it can be controlled quite easily.

Assistant General Manager of a well-known group stated, “Owners are commonly using gas boiler in the factory because of low price of gas in Bangladesh and its availability”.

“Jhute business has an important role in labor unrest. The people who are involved with this trade are linked with political parties. To control jhute trade, intra and the inter group conflict finally turns to unrest in the sector. Before installation of ‘Jhute’ boiler, they were required to pay BDT 130-150 thousand as a monthly gas bill while the whole cost have been savedby using the fabric wastage.To reduce the dependency on the natural gas because of short supply and for the sustainability of environment and to save energy for the future generation, we have transformed gas boiler into ‘Jhute’ boiler. Our small contribution in converting waste to energy may explore in the context of an industrial environmental management system’’, he added.

One of the suppliers informed, “Jhute boilers are being imported mainly from China and Korea. It has a motorized pump which injects water in a zone called as Foggy Zone. Flue gas passes through the system before ejected and collected dust from flue gas. These Boilers have advanced technology which helps to trap the carbon dioxide emissions and discharge less dust. Such smoke-free jhute fired boilers are more than 80 percent efficient,’’.

As few factories are gradually shifting from waste disposal practice to adopting waste utilization technologies because of its social, economic and environmental benefits, more are expected to come on this row within a short span of time for having a sustainable business in RMG sector.