Sustain. Environ. Res., 21(3), 203-208 (2011) 203

ENVIRONMENTAL SYNERGIES OF KAOHSIUNG ESTP IN TAIWAN

Yen-Chuan Chen,1,* Tzu-Yar Liu,1 Jui-Hsi Yen,2 Yi-Hua Li,2 Chi-Ming Chiu,2 Ying-Ying Lai2 and Tien-Chi Wu2

1Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories Industrial Technology Research Institute

Hsinchu County 310, Taiwan 2Department of Waste Management

Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration Taipei 100, Taiwan

Key Words: Eco-industrial park, environmental science and technology park, industrial symbiosis, CO2 emission reduction, urban mining

ABSTRACT

In Taiwan, a total of four eco-industrial parks, called the environmental science and technology parks (ESTPs), have been developed at Kaohsiung, Hualien, Tainan and Taoyuan counties. As the Kaohsiung ESTP is the first one established, there are currently 34 companies stationed in the park approved by Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. The expected results at Kaohsiung ESTP in the next five years will include creating US$256 million total investment, US$756 million annual production values, 1,009 people in employment, and 0.16 Mt recycling resources. Among the companies stationed in the park, the resource recyclers are the primary business. The benefits of CO2 emission reduction through the resource recycling were also calculated via life cycle assessment model, called DoITPro. Between 2007 and 2009, the total amount of 46.5 × 103 t recycling resources had been recycled, 27.7 × 103 t renewable resources retrieved, and 93.4 × 103 CO2 reduced. It shows that the establishment of Kaohsiung ESTP has economic, social, and environmental benefits and contributes to local development in Kaohsiung.

*Corresponding author Email: yenchuan@itri.org.tw

INTRODUCTION The environmental trends of zero waste and car-

bon reduction have been focused worldwide since the 1990s and different country has implemented various sustainable policies and strategies to respond to these challenges. The industrial symbiosis or symbiotic re-source-recycling network could be created to decrease waste emission and increase renewable resources, so the promotion of eco-industrial parks (EIPs) has be-come an important approach to obtain economic, envi-ronmental, and social benefits simultaneously in many countries [1-3].

Various definitions of EIPs have been used in the literature. The representative one illustrated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency EIP is stated as [4]: “A community of manufacturing and service businesses seeking enhanced environmental and economic performance by collaborating in the management of environmental and reuse issues. By

working together the community of businesses seeks a collective benefit that is greater than the sum of the individual benefits each company would realize if it optimized its individual performance only.” In addi-tion to the definition stated above, Lowe [5] had specified that an EIP can be designed with various conceptual structures as followings: (1) a single by-product exchange or network of exchange; (2) a recy-cling business cluster; (3) a collection of environ-mental technology companies; (4) a collection of companies, making “green” products; (5) an industrial park designed around a single environmental theme; (6) a park with environmental friendly infrastructure or construction; and (7) a mixed-use development (in-dustrial, commercial, and residential). Therefore, an industrial park covered one or several conceptual structures suggested above could be classified as an EIP. Although various types of EIPs have been devel-oped in the world, the common feature of an EIP must be more environmental friendly than other conven-

204 Sustain. Environ. Res., 21(3), 203-208 (2011)

tional ones. The most representative EIP is the Kalundborg

Park in Denmark. All firms within the park use the wastes/heat generated by others for waste minimiza-tion and energy saving. In recent years, EIPs have been established in different Asian countries, such as Japan [6], China [7], Korea [8], among others. Among these EIPs, the eco-towns developed in Japan have been demonstrated to be successful EIPs to recycle lo-cal wastes to reusing materials. Therefore, not only industrial symbiosis but also urban symbiosis have been created in eco-towns. It has been demonstrated that development of EIPs has the outcome of reduc-tion of waste, pollutant, and carbon emission [9].

Although resource recycling has become an im-portant environmental strategy of promoting the EIPs, metal is especially important one among various re-sources because economic development depends on the quantity and prices of metals. So the urban mining, which means that waste electronic products or elec-tronic industrial wastes contain valuable metals, is also emphasized recently. Furthermore, urban mining provides the following advantages: (1) secondary pol-lution would not be occurred because of mature and clearer recycling technologies; (2) recycling of rare and precious metals could enhance the competitive-ness of a country; and (3) recyclable metal to replace raw metal from the nature could reduce energy con-sumption and carbon emission from mining. The 2008 publication of the National Institute for Materials Sci-ence in Japan reported that total urban mining in Japan contained 6,800 t gold resulting in Japan being the largest gold-producing country in the world [10]. In Korea, the national green growth strategies announced by government also specify that vitalizing urban min-ing is an important sub-strategy [11].

In Taiwan, a total of four EIPs, called the envi-ronmental science and technology parks (ESTPs), have been established in Kaohsiung, Hualien, Taoyuan and Tainan counties since 2003. The project of ESTPs was initiated in order to vitalize idle indus-trial zones and enhance nationwide environ-mental/recycling technology level. The ESTP, there-fore, means that the businesses in the park must be environmental friendly and technologically advanced factories. Currently, many resources recycling busi-nesses have been approved in the ESTPs. ESTPs are the same with the other EIPs worldwide to vitalize ur-ban mining, create industrial symbiosis, and reduce carbon emission.

Kaohsiung ESTP was the first one established on November 3, 2003 in Kaohsiung County. As of Au-gust 2010, 34 companies have been approved to be stationed in this park by Taiwan Environmental Pro-tection Administration (TEPA). In this study, several of main benefits in Kaohsiung ESTP was compared with other respective types of businesses. Furthermore, the environmental benefits of resources recycling

businesses were calculated via life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify carbon reduction. And the envi-ronmental effects of cleaner production companies were specified via flow chart to show that these busi-nesses could make other local industry greener. There-fore, the purpose in the study is to demonstrate that economic, social, and environmental effectiveness could be obtained simultaneously, and particularly the environmental multi-functions would be revealed gradually in Kaohsiung ESTP.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

1. Brief Description of Kaohsiung ESTP

As mentioned above, the Kaohsiung ESTP was

the first one in Taiwan. It covers 40 ha and locates at Gangshan Township, Kaohsiung County. Kaohsiung County is an important industrial city including metal, iron, and petrochemical industries in southern Taiwan. And Gangshan Township is the development center of fastener industry in Taiwan.

The same with other ESTPs in Taiwan, the busi-ness which wants to invest in Kaohsiung ESTP must conform with the scope of introduced industries, in-cluding (1) industries related to cleaner production technology; (2) industries that recover waste resources in order to create eco-friendly industry; (3) industries that recover and convert resources into new product; (4) industries involved in emerging and strategic envi-ronmental technologies; (5) industries in production of equipment and system of renewable energy; and (6) industries that deal with solutions for key aspects of environmental protection [12]. Currently, among 34 companies in the ESTP, 14 and 8 firms are classified as resource recycling and cleaner production, respec-tively.

2. Recyclers of Kaohsiung ESTP

As mentioned above, 14 firms are classified as

resource recycling, 8 of them had begun operations, and 5 of them had recycling benefits in 2007-2009. A brief description of each recycler having important re-cycling benefits is as follows (Fig. 1): (1) WRC Co.: to recycle wastewater sludge from the

electroplating processes to produce Zn and Cu concentrate. The WRC has utilized the waste steam of the Gangshan municipal incinerator to dry its sludge. This is an exemplary example of energy recycling and carbon reduction.

(2) HJE Co.: to recycle spent catalyst from petro-chemical refineries to recover rare metal, such as Mo, V, and Ni.

(3) LTD Co.: to recycle waste lead-acid battery from motorcycle/auto recycler or repair plant to retrieve the pig lead.

(4) WGC Co.: to recycle waste CD or DVD to re-

Chen et al.: Environmental Synergies of Kaohsiung ESTP 205

WRC

LTDHJE

WGC BYC

Gangshan Incinerator

Electroplating WWTP

Sludge

Steam

MetallurgicalPlant

Cu and Zn Concentrate

Petrochemical Refinery Spent

Catalyst

LCD Panel Manufacturer

Waste Glass Substrate

Recycled Glass Substrate

Motor and Auto Recycler

Motor and Auto Repair Plant

Pb Battery Factory

Waste Pb Battery

Pig Pb Chemical Plant

Mo, V, Ni

CD/DVD Manufacturer

Plastics Manufacturer

Waste VCD/DVDPE Plastcs

Kaohsiung ESTP

Fig. 1. Industrial symbiosis of recyclers at Kaohsiung ESTP.

trieve high-price plastics material.

(5) BYC Co.: to recycle waste glass substrate from LCD panel manufacturer to produce useful glass substrate. And then, the recycled glass substrate could be sent back as new glass substrate to LCD panel manufacturing process.

3. Cleaner Producer of Fastener Industry in

Kaohsiung ESTP As mentioned above, 8 firms are classified as

cleaner production, 6 of them had begun operations, and 4 of them had provided greener technology or equipment for fastener manufacturers to use. A brief introduction of each company providing more envi-ronmental technology and equipment for fastener in-dustry is as follows: (1) GLM Co.: it has a special skill in manufacturing

wire drawing machines and related equipments. The steel brush descaling machine produced by GLM could avoid using strong acid in steel des-caling stage of screw manufacturing process. And the wire drawing machine produced by GLM could avoid indoor air pollution in wire drawing stage of screw manufacturing process.

(2) CKM Co.: it is a manufacturer in automatic thread rolling machine. This machine produced by CKM could avoid indoor oil emission and enhance op-eration security in threads rolling stage of screw manufacturing process.

(3) ATT Co.: it is a branch of an international chemi-cal material producer to support electronic and fastener industry in Taiwan. The technology and equipment of metal finishing developed by ATT could provide environmental friendly chemicals

and machines in electroplating stage of screw manufacturing process.

(4) MAP Co.: it is a company mainly providing envi-ronmental friendly surface treatment. The service of non-Cr(VI) electroplating provided by MAP could reduce the pollutants and damage in electro-plating stage of screw manufacturing process. And the service of non-Cr(VI) electroplating was bought from and supported by ATT Co.

4. LCA for Resource Recycling

Because LCA can quantify environmental im-

pacts of any specified one from cradle to grave, LCA has been used to compare and analyze environmental performance of utilizing renewable resources to re-place other raw materials from nature. For example, recycling 1 kg aluminum and electrolytic chromium coated steel could reduce 97 and 57% CO2 emission, respectively [13]. Furthermore, LCA could be a useful tool to evaluate the environmental benefits, such as greenhouse gas emission reduction, of industrial sym-biosis in EIPs [14,15].

According to ISO 14040 [16], the framework of LCA includes four phases: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpreta-tion. In this paper, goal and scope definition is to cal-culate CO2 emission reduction by comparing annual renewable resources. The product of the recycling process of each recycler could be used as raw materi-als to other manufacturers, to the same isometric re-sources from natural of each operating company at Kaohsiung ESTP. The inputs, including raw materials, auxiliary materials, water, fuel, and electricity, and outputs, including flue gas, wastewater, and solid

206 Sustain. Environ. Res., 21(3), 203-208 (2011)

waste emission, of each recycling process were inves-tigated and calculated by LCA method. Therefore, the CO2 emission of renewable resources manufactured by each recycler subtracted from the CO2 emission of isometric raw materials from natural is the CO2 emis-sion reduction in each recycler. The inventory data of raw materials adopted from Boustead model were cal-culated and modified via DoITPro model, which was developed and renewed local inventory data from dif-ferent industries by Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan. The DoITPro model also includes two life cycle impact assessment methods, CML and Eco-indicator 95. In this paper, Eco-indicator was chosen and greenhouse effect was the only impact category used to calculate the CO2 emission reduction due to resource recycling.

RESULTS AND DISUSSION

From the application documents of each com-

pany, the total expected results at Kaohsiung ESTP in the next five years include creating US$256 million total investment, US$756 million annual production values, 1,009 people in employment, and 0.16 Mt re-cycling resources as shown in Table 1. Among them, the expected results of recycling companies at Kaoh-siung ESTP are US$150 million total investment, US$394 million annual production values, and 268 people in employment. Therefore, the percentages of total investment, annual production values, and people in employment contributed by recycling companies at Kaohsiung ESTP are 59, 52 and 27%, respectively. The relevant information for other companies is shown in Table 1. The outcome shows that resources recyclers contribute more in total investment and an-

nual production values and cleaner producers contrib-ute more in employment (34%).

Table 2 shows that recycling resources, renew-able resources and CO2 emission reduction of each re-cycler mentioned above. The recycling and renewable resources were obtained from operational data of each company. In this study, recycling resources represent the raw materials (e.g., by-product or waste generated by other companies) of the recycling process of each recycler, and renewable resources refer to the product of the recycling process. The total amount of CO2 emission reduction calculated via DoITPro model be-tween 2007 and 2009 was approximately 93.4 × 103 t. For the same 3-yr span, the quantities for recycling re-sources and renewable resources are 46.5 × 103 recy-cled and 27.7 × 103 t retrieved, These environmental benefits would increase annually when more compa-nies begin to operate and more wastes are recycled in the future..

Figure 2 shows that green solutions of cleaner producers to support local fastener industry. In several stages of screw manufacturing process, such as steel descaling, wire drawing, thread rolling, and electro-plating, the greener materials, equipments, or services provided by cleaner producers of Kaohsiung ESTP could be used. Clearly, the environmental impacts from screw manufacturing process could be reduced effectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Currently, a total of 34 tenants are stationed in

Kaohsiung ESTPs, including resource recycling, cleaner production, renewable energy companies. As operating manufacturers continue to increase, the out-

Table 1. Total expected results of different industries at Kaohsiung ESTP

Total investment Annual production values Employment Expected results Industries US$

million Percentage

(%) US$

million Percentage

(%) Numbers Percentage (%)

Resourec recycling 150 59 394 52 268 27 Cleaner production 42 16 113 15 345 34 Renewable energy 50 20 232 31 265 25 Other companies 14 5 17 2 131 13 Total 256 100 756 100 1,009 100

Table 2. Environmental benefits of recyclers at Kaohsiung ESTP

Item Co.

Recycling resources (103 t y-1)

Renewable resources (103 t y-1)

Total amount of CO2 emission reduction (103 t CO2-eq y-1)

2007 2008 2009 2007 2008 2009 2007 2008 2009 WRC 1.4 10.0 10.0 0.63 5.1 5.3 1.3 10.8 12.0 HJE － 7.0 7.0 － 5.4 5.8 － 25.2 27.5 LTD 5.0 1.5 3.0 2.4 0.3 1.3 6.17 0.025 3.05 WGC 0.9 0.6 0.07 0.85 0.5 0.065 4.01 2.52 0.32 BYC － 0.01 0.004 － 0.0098 0.0039 － 0.34 0.14 Total 7.3 19.1 20.1 3.9 11.3 12.5 11.5 38.9 43.0

Chen et al.: Environmental Synergies of Kaohsiung ESTP 207

Steel

wire rod

Steel

descaling

Wire

drawing

Heading

Thread rolling

Heat

treatment

Electro- plating

Greener Screws

GLM Co. ‧The steel brush descaling machine ‧Avoid using strong acid

GLM Co. ‧The wire

drawing machine

‧Avoid indoor air pollution

CKM Co. ‧The automatic

thread rolling machine

‧Avoid indoor oil emission and enhance operation security

MAP Co. ‧Provide green surface treatment ‧The service of non-Cr(VI)

electroplating ‧Reduce the pollutants and

damage

ATT Co. ‧The chemical material producer

to support fastener industry ‧Provide environmental friendly

chemicals and machines of metal finishing

Green chemicals and machines

Fig. 2. Green solutions of cleaner producers for fastener industry at Kaohsiung ESTP.

come of Kaohsiung ESTP is also increasing signifi-cantly. Kaohsiung ESTP has demonstrated to gain some specific benefits, such as enhancing resource re-cycling, reducing carbon emission, and making other local industry greener.

With respect to quantification of CO2 emission reduction of recycling companies in the future, practi-cal input/output data of each recycling process must be inventoried to have reliable CO2 emission reduc-tion information. In addition, other impact categories, such as eutrophication, acid precipitation, and solid waste should be considered to realize different envi-ronmental benefits of resource recycling at Kaohsiung ESTP.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The study was sponsored by TEPA (Grant EPA-

99-H103-02-242). We also greatly acknowledge the working staff of Taoyuan ESTP for their cooperative efforts.

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Discussions of this paper may appear in the discus-sion section of a future issue. All discussions should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief within six months of publication.

Manuscript Received: September 23, 2010 Revision Received: November 18, 2010

and Accepted: November 19, 2010