Environment

Environment
Waste to Resources Biodiversity Action for Climate Change Energy Management Water Management Air Quality Management

Energy Management

Green Production: Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction

Upholding the energy policy: total participation, energy conservation, carbon reduction, and green production, by implementing the ISO 50001 energy management system, we achieve energy management and verify energy efficiency and the achievement of energy conservation targets of all sites. To achieve the 1% annual energy conservation target, we propose energy conservation programs every year, use high-performance cogeneration, build renewal energy equipment, optimize existing equipment, and combine smart systems to make constant innovation to optimize the performance in energy conservation and carbon reduction. We also set emerging environmental protection benchmarks to actively transform into a "new low-carbon & green energy paper company".

Energy Management

We applied the ISO 50001 energy management system to the Paper Division in 2013 and then introduce it to all the Operational Sites in Taiwan in 2015. The headquarters established a cross-department Energy Management Committee to ensure energy management to be developed towards the goals of continual improvement. We awarded in public and got the related awards from the government to encourage the employees to figure out the opportunities to energy-saving improvements and increase the benefits of the energy. To systematically manage the performance of the energy, our overseas companies established ISO 50001 energy management system and Binh Duong Paper Mill has obtained third-party certification. In addition, in 2023 we will continue to expand to other operation sites.

Save Energy and Reduce Carbon Emission

In 2022, the energy emission intensity of the Containerboard Division and the Corrugated Container Division was 8.52 (GJ/ton of paper) and 11.80 (GJ/ ton of paper) respectively, a slight increase over the previous year. The energy emission intensity of the Household Products and Paperboard Division was 0.61 (GJ/ton of paper), an annual decrease of 1.4%. Although due to the malfunction of the automated warehousing equipment, leading to the reduction of the production, at Houli Mill, the unit product energy consumption increased by 2.26% compared to the base year 2019. In 2022, we invested NT$27.67 million in implementing 49 energy conservation projects in three main categories: process improvement, equipment improvement, and energy management. Power conservation totaled 10,319,775 kWh (or 37,151 GJ). GHG reduction totaled 6,639 tCO2e. Energy cost saved about NT$33.88 million.


Renewable Energy

Making good use of the geographical characteristics of each plant and the production characteristics of the paper industry, our company installed the largest wind turbine in Asia at the Chupei Mill in 2003. Starting from 2011, we also installed solar power generation equipment at the Houli Mill in Taichung. In 2017, the wind power generation equipment at the Chupei Mill obtained certification from the National Renewable Energy Certificate Center, making it the first paper company in the country to receive wind power renewable energy certificates. From 2017 to 2022, we obtained a total of 11,917 renewable energy certificates, equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 3,310 households per year (calculated based on Taiwan Power Company's average monthly electricity consumption of 300 kWh per household over the past 10 years).

Actively developing green energy, our company will continue the renewable energy and install renewable energy generation equipment at suitable locations. This includes the installation of solar photovoltaic systems at the Houli Mill in 2022 and the development of biogas power generation at the Tayuan Paper Mill. The Houli Mill also plans to start using biogas green energy in 2024. In 2022, our company's Taiwan operating locations' renewable energy equipment met the requirement of having a renewable energy installation capacity of 10% of the contract capacity, as stipulated by the regulations for major electricity consumers.

New direction for net zero with biogas!
Tayuan Mill optimizes wastewater treatment for biogas generation development

Each year Tayuan Mill, founded in 1987, recycles over 50MT of recovered paper into industrial paper and provides low-emission fuels for the mill and nearby industrial parks through waste to resource to develop industry symbiosis. Waste to resource of the entire Tayuan Mill is up to 99%. In 1994, Tayuan Mill built the industry-first UASB wastewater aeration treatment system to enhance wastewater treatment efficiency and reduce energy consumption and sludge production. And it has been 30 years now. Apart from saving energy, aeration treatment produces less sludge and even generate biogas, high heating value green energy, while consuming organic substances at the same time. In response to low-carbon transformation, Tayuan Mill built two IC high-performance aeration reactors in 2010 and 2020 respectively. Apart from stabilizing the wastewater treatment system, they can also produce high-quality aeration bacteria continuously.

After purification, biogas generated from aeration treatment contains high-purity propane (about 80%), which is the major ingredient of natural gas and 100% pure green energy. In consideration of the higher stability than the intermittent wind and solar power and the circulation advantage of biogas, Tayuan Mill initiated the Biogas Power Generation Construction Project in April 2021 to build two biogas generators, each was 1,200 kW. Meters were connected and the commercial operations started on May 9, 2022 to generate electricity of up to 19 million kWh out of the maximum of 2,400 kWh to supply power to about 5,300 households and reduce GHG emissions of 15,500 tCO2e each year. 

Additionally, Tayuan Mill has also built the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to recover and turn into steam the waste heat from the generation set's flue-gas stacks for in-house papermaking to maximize the use of the precious green energy. By turning the endless wastewater into green byproducts, such as green power, steam, and aeration bacteria, we extend the carbon reduction influence of waste to resource. In the future, we will reproduce the success experience of Tayuan Mill to paper mills at home and abroad. Currently, we have initiated the biogas power generation planning for Houli Mill, our flagship mill, to start a new direction for net zero with biogas

Alternative Fuel

In Taiwan, 98% of energy relies on import. To enhance energy efficiency and reduce the dependency on fossil fuel, we actively develop various types of alternative fuels, such as using process residual materials to increase the quantity and improve the quality of alternative fuels with technology, in order to enhance the utilization rate of alternative fuels.

The establishment of the Agricultural Resource Utilization Team aims to deepen the use of alternative fuels.

With an alternative energy rate of 20% by 2030, we already established the "Agricultural and Forest Materials to Resources Team" under the Climate Change & Circular Economy Office in 2022. The team mainly takes charge of the R&D of multifaceted fuel reuse technology and circular economy to resource, and captures the supply of domestic and overseas agricultural and forest surplus materials so as to develop more multifaceted possibilities for turning agricultural and forest surplus materials into biomass fuels and actively assist Taiwan in developing the biomass supply ecosystem to ensure materials sustainability and stability to create a win-win situation for all parties. The achievements in 2022 are as follows:

• Increase carbon-neutral biomass fuels by 16.5 times.
• Extend the processing of domestic biomass fuels (including roadside trees and waste wood).
• The overall fuel substitution rate for the company was 10.32%, YoY + 3.81%, reduction of 57,471 MT coal.