In recent years, environmental pollution issues related to the (fugitive) emissions from factories have gained a great deal of attentions from the general public, as people are aware of the potential adverse health effect that might affect their quality of life. With the increasing susceptibility of respiratory illnesses, such as children’s asthma or upper respiratory trait diseases, the figures of environmental nuisance complaints has been increasing at an unprecedented rate in recent years. The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) not only contributes to the formation of ground level ozone and various air contaminants, but also triggers a variety of health problems, including respiratory illness, circulation diseases, or even malignant tumors. For these reasons, Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) has applied several air pollution control strategies, such as permit system, emission standards, fugitive emission control, and economic incentives, on stationary sources to reduce VOC emission and improve air quality.
The result of implementation of this project can be used to support the investigation of the incident of repeated appeals, to complete the measurement operation of two sources of unknown odor in F01 and E01, and to complete the analysis of primary air pollutants and the tracking of possible sources of pollution. In terms of negotiation for carbon emission reduction and pollution improvement, the odor receptor measurement operation in A01 has been completed in order to confirm the effectiveness of improvement of pollution source. The emission reduction negotiation meeting for companies as the pollution sources in C Industrial Park was completed according to the result of investigation of source of odor in F01 in order to urge companies as the pollution sources to strengthen the improvement. In terms of evaluation of emission of hazardous air pollutants from petrochemical warehousing industry and loading facilities, the collection and summarization of literatures and control strategies of hazardous air pollutant emission of domestic and foreign petrochemical/warehousing industries have been completed together with the investigations of hazardous air pollutants of chemical tanks in G01 Harbor Area and H01 Harbor Area. In terms of strengthening the audit and control of emission of flare tower, the collection and summarization of domestic and foreign flare tower flow measurement methods have been completed, and the composition analysis of incoming gas of five flare towers has been completed in coordination with gas tracking for calculation of exhaust flow component in order to compare the rationality of flow data of each flare tower.
In terms of regulatory compliance audit of petrochemical plant, the regulator compliance audit and fugitive sources (equipment components, storage tanks, and wastewater treatment plant) screening operation for one petrochemical plant has been completed and there is no major non-conformity found. In addition, the items and contents of recommended amendment of regulation of volatile organic compounds have been proposed according to the results of regulatory compliance audits of petrochemical plants over the years. The air pollutant emission standard for petrochemical heating equipment has been reviewed in order to propose the draft of domestic “Nitrogen Oxides Emission Standard for Process Heating Equipment of Petrochemical Industry” by referring to the NOx control content of process heating equipment of domestic and foreign petrochemical plants and the annual test results and background investigation of process heating equipment of domestic petrochemical plants during a three-year span. In terms of the investigation of current status of emission of volatile organic compounds from domestic surface coating companies, the background investigations of 15 surface coating factories have been completed, and a total of 16 times of emission channel inspection in 9 surface coating factories have been completed together with the composition of “Guidelines for Improvement on VOCs emission Reduction of Vehicle (Car, Motorcycle, and Bicycle) Surface Coating Industry”. In terms of evaluation of simple underwater VOCs concentration monitoring equipment installed in the cooling water tower in petrochemical process, the collection and summarization of data of simple online automatic underwater VOCs concentration monitoring equipment have been completed. And the measurement and evaluation of factories with 2 types of Taiwanese brands of TOC monitoring equipment have also been completed. In terms of investigation of VOCs emission characteristics of wastewater (sewage) treatment plant, the background investigations of 19 wastewater treatment plants have been completed together with the inspections of 5 integrated wastewater (sewage) treatment plants in industrial park. And the content of recommended amendment of Chapter 7 Rules of Wastewater Treatment Facility of “Volatile Organic Compound Air Pollution Control and Emission Standard” has been proposed according to the results of investigations and relevant tests.
In terms of the evaluation of the feasibility of body sample collection and toxicity test for victims of domestic air pollution emergency incident, the summarization of 11 biological detection and analysis methods announced by Ministry of Labor, 22 biological detection and analysis methods announced by NIOSH, and the two major categories of biological detection and analysis methods of ILO Encyclopedia have been completed. After discussion and visit of domestic medical institutions in the research fields of biological detection and analysis, currently large domestic medical institutions are only equipped with very little capability of biological detection and verification. It will take a significant amount of investment for establishing a complete capability of biological detection and verification, so the feasibility of establishing human body sample collection and toxicity test in Taiwan is not high. In terms of promoting the air pollution incident risk management plan, the composition of risk management plans for the processes of three factories with high pollution potential has been completed together with the VOCs composition (before and after the installation of preventive equipment) detections at six spots among three emission channels. And the content of risk management plan has been amended by referring to cases of prior major air pollution incidents in order to propose the plan for future promotion. In terms of examination of Environmental Protection Bureau’s capability of prevention and preparation for the air pollution incidents, the summarization of air pollution fingerprint data, data of appeals, and floor plans of industrial parks has been completed together with the comparison of rationality of emission fingerprint data of five emission channels constructed by local Environmental Protection Bureau. In terms of the organization of relevant meetings, three meetings for technology transfer training of tracking and investigation of unidentified air pollution sources for 65 persons have been organized together with two air pollution response educational trainings for 68 persons.
