Cauldron for heating up glasshouses, working on soy reed represented – for construction of a plant RSD 18,5 mil

Agricultural corporation Belgrade (PKB) daily saves from 1.000 to 2.000 EUR, by using water heating cauldron for heating up glasshouses, which uses soy reed instead of the fuel, as it was said yesterday (March, 11th, 2008) at cauldron work presentation in PKB household.

The Manager of cauldron project construction, from the Institute for nuclear sciences “Vinca”, Dragoljub Dakic, said that the plant had been already working for a month and a half, and that it uses for power a biomass from agricultural production, which is done in the same household and which was thrown away by PKB.

- Serbia could manufacture 50 such devices in one year time, and to process at least a part of 10 millions tones of secondary biomass, which is the annual disposable quantity, said Dakic.

The Associate to this project, Rastko Mladenovic, said, that the plant could be used for heating up to one hectare under glasshouses, working on its maximum power, when it spends 547 kg or two bales of soy reed per hour, whose production price is 2,5 RSD per kg.

Construction of the plant cost 18,5 millions RSD, by Mladenovic’ s words, and he added that this investment could be paid up in less than a year.

Ministry of agriculture assisted in construction of the plant, with 5,5 millions RSD it gave from the National Investment Plan, and Ministry of sciences, with 4,5 millions RSD and with salaries for the workers, while the rest of the means was provided by PKB, which also participated in construction of infrastructure.

By Mladenovic’s opinion, the demand for these kind of plants exists, but in order to benefit from their use, it is necessary to be built near fields, as transportation expenses and expenses of preparation for transportation of biomass are huge.

Assistant Minister for science, Aleksa Zajek, said that this cauldron was one of the cheapest projects this Ministry ever financed, and it belonged to a category of projects which give concrete results, pointing out that the Ministry would always support this kind of projects.

PKB Director, Milan Veljovic said that construction of this plant was a big step for Serbia and the first one in finding serious solution for using biomass. He added that its use would help this company to place early vegetables to the market two months before the usual term.