BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental-based sugar producer Victorias Milling Company (VMC) has temporarily stopped the operations of its Manapla distillery to introduce a P100-million environmental improvement to the industrial plant.
VMC president Minnie Chua said the company is complying with their commitment to finish the upgrades following concerns raised by the communities surrounding the distillery.
“The upgrade plans were stalled when the province went on lockdown due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We can restart our operation with much improvement in our environmental performance,” Chua said in a statement last week.
VMC – one of the country’s biggest producers of raw and refined sugar – is located in the northern city of Victorias while its distillery is situated in Barangay Purisima of neighboring Manapla town.
The firm has allocated more than P100 million to address the environmental concerns in the distillery and fulfill its commitment to reduce the overall environmental impact of the plant operations.
The upgrades include the installation of an anaerobic digester to lessen the presence of odor-causing bacteria in the slops by 60 percent to 70 percent and converting it to biogas and the application of an automatic flaring system to eliminate odor-causing gases.
Other improvements include the application of wastewater treatment methods at the aeration ponds such as filtration, aeration and dosing of enzymes to counteract the odor-causing chemical reaction in the digesters as well as the installation of additional units of aspirating surface aerators in the aeration ponds to help eliminate odor.
All upgrades to improve wastewater volume reduction and treatment processes are expected to be completed in the third quarter of the year, the firm said.
The VMC Manapla distillery went full blast in its operations in April, even doubling its capacity in alcohol production, to address the scarcity of ethyl alcohol amid the high demand for the disinfectant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of the alcohol supply has been donated by VMC to local government units and various frontline agencies. (With a report from PNA/PN)
