Hot coal from coco waste spells cold cash for couple

By Maricar Cinco

SILANG, Cavite – Juan Marquez and wife Celia are not ashamed to call themselves “mag-uuling” (charcoal maker) and “basurero” (garbage collector).

The work they do, they say, brings in the cash.

But being a long-time environmentalist, Marquez believes that recycling agricultural wastes, particularly coconut that is abundant in Cavite, helps “minimize [harmful] impact on the environment.”

In 2006, Marquez was joined by fellow Rotarians in Silang town to put up 1M (culled from his initials – Juan Marquez) Agro-fuel Development Ventures Inc.

Due to his work on charcoal production from coconut wastes, with the assistance of Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau in Los Baños, Laguna, Marquez in 2007 was named one of 10 winners in research and development by the Philippine Business in Development, the local counterpart of The Netherlands-based non-government organization Business in Development.

Charcoal production

Both active in the town’s waste management program, Marquez and his wife were alarmed in 1996 when they learned that coconut wastes made up 60 percent of the biodegradable trash generated in Silang.

“These were disposed in creeks that clogged canals and caused floods,” says Celia.

It also takes years before coconut waste decomposes.

Turning the problem to an advantage, the couple collected the husks and shells of coconut from traders in Silang and later, from nearby towns. They received 10 to 15 tons of coconut wastes at their plant each day.

Marquez describes the procedure to recycle the wastes: The coconut husks must be dry, with only 30 percent of moisture, before they are charred in the kilns for three days. Later, the charcoal is cooled down for two days, ground, and finally molded into briquettes.

Marquez has also devised condensing pipes that trap and condense the smoke emitted from the kilns. The vapor is condensed into another byproduct – “pyroligenous acid” or liquid smoke.

The plant has 10 kilns, each capable of producing 500 kilos of coal and about 500 liters of liquid smoke per production.

Cheaper, safer

Coconut charcoal is found to have higher heating value. It is smokeless and odorless as compared with wood charcoal, Marquez says, adding that it is three times hotter.

“Eight pieces of briquettes could be used for two hours of cooking. A kilo [of charcoal] may be used to grill five kilos of pork meat and two bangus [milkfish]. We’ve tried that,” he says.

1M supplies coconut charcoal to poultry growers in Manila and Cavite. Most poultry raisers use liquefied petroleum gas. But a ton of charcoal can be used in a poultry farm of 30,000 heads of chicken, enabling growers to cut down on fuel expenses.

Liquid smoke, on the other hand, may be used as insect and pest repellent, odor eliminator and disinfectant. 1M supplies liquid smoke to farmers, factories and hospital waste treatment facilities.

Vic Marasigan of KLT Fruits Inc. in Dasmariñas City says he uses liquid smoke to remove odor from the factory’s fruit wastes.

“We [also] tried spraying it [at] a passion fruit plantation, and insect infestation was reduced,” he says.

Also known as “wood vinegar,” the refined liquid smoke has medicinal uses – it may be applied to disinfect open wounds and cure arthritis.

The Department of Agriculture Cavite office has also tested liquid smoke in vegetable plantations.

1M’s pack of 30 briquettes, equivalent to a kilo, costs P19. It is also sold per sack – about five kilos – to poultry growers for P90. The liquid smoke, branded as Norture Liquid Smoke, is sold for P120 per liter.

Replication

With coconut wastes as their primary material, the couple worries about the depleting coconut plantations in the town.

“In 10 years, coconut plantations could be gone and converted into subdivisions. We just have to replant and replace the losses,” says Celia.

But Marquez says they can also use mango wastes, pineapple stalks or skin of durian to produce charcoal, depending on presence of the crops in certain regions.

He says he is willing to transfer the technology and begin the charcoal industry in other communities.

“There is a high demand for coal. We are being required two container vans of coal per month,” he says.

He says that 1M is now considering prospects of exporting its products abroad.