VietNamNet Bridge – The Thai Binh Province’s Science and Technology Department ignored the invention of local farmer Bui Duc Kien, but scientists from the Ministry of Science and Technology have officially recognized the value of his incinerator and electricity generator.

Kien's incinerator.

Phan Vinh Quang, Deputy Director of the MST’s Office for High-technology Activities Certification, told Dat Viet’s reporters that his office would help Bui Duc Kien register intellectual property rights for the incineration and electricity generation technology.

Quang visited Thai Binh to meet Kien after reading about his invention in the newspapers.

However, Quang could not see how the incinerator worked on the first trip in May 2012 due to technical problems.

He returned to Thai Binh three months later with his colleagues. After learning about the incinerator and how it operates, they came to a conclusion that it was a valuable invention.

“I think that I need to do something to help Kien protect his invention. Helping him make intellectual property registration is the first thing I can do within my capacity,” he said.

“His application has been recognized as lawful, while his invention has been publicised all over the world,” he said. “His invention could receive four to five stars, which can be internationally registered”.

Quang emphasized that this is a great achievement of Vietnamese creativity. A Russian once registered a similar invention, but his research did not give satisfactory results.

The biggest problem for Kien now is that he needs $2,000 to pay for the registration fee. He has spent all of his assets on the research work.

Why did Thai Binh reject Kien’s invention?

An official of MST said that the officers of the General Directorate of Standards, Measurement and Quality were present at the site when Kien ran the incinerator on a trial basis in August 2012.

The officers said there were good signs, including the temperature of the incinerator and the dust concentration.

The incinerator generated dust of 160 mg/Nm3, just a little higher than the Vietnamese standard of 150 mg/Nm3. Meanwhile, the CO indicator was 324 mg/Nm3, a little higher than the Vietnamese standard of 300 mg/Nm3.

The other indicators were lower than the permitted levels. The SO2 indicator was 110 mg/Nm3 (the Vietnamese standard 300 mg/Nm3), while NO2 was 130 mg/Nm3 (500 mg/Nm3).

However, despite the encouraging results, the Thai Binh science department still prohibited Kien to continue his research work, reasoning that Kien violated the environment law when bringing garbage to his house, while the burning garbage generated smoke, polluting the environment.

The department also said Kien must not use a boiler until he attended a training course on how to run s boiler safely.

However, Quang believes that the department did not consider the strong and weak points of Kien’s invention.

Dat Viet